Doosan Group Company

Doosan Group may be better known for beer and baseball, but it has also become a poster child for economic reform. Over the last two years, South Korea's 14th-largest chaebol, or conglomerate, has shrunk its operation from 29 companies to 12, sold a half-interest in its headquarters building to a local bank and formed a joint venture with a Belgian firm, Interbrew, to operate its faltering Oriental Brewery, maker of OB beer.

Doosan Infracore Co., South Korea's largest maker of construction machinery, agreed Monday to buy Ingersoll-Rand Co.'s Bobcat and other earth-moving equipment units for $4.9 billion in the country's biggest overseas acquisition. The combined businesses, which make small loaders, excavators and forklifts, had about $2.6 billion in sales last year, Incheon-based Doosan Infracore said. Doosan Infracore will pay 1.9 times sales, compared with a value of 1.2 times for Caterpillar Inc.

Doosan Infracore Co., South Korea's largest maker of construction machinery, agreed Monday to buy Ingersoll-Rand Co.'s Bobcat and other earth-moving equipment units for $4.9 billion in the country's biggest overseas acquisition. The combined businesses, which make small loaders, excavators and forklifts, had about $2.6 billion in sales last year, Incheon-based Doosan Infracore said. Doosan Infracore will pay 1.9 times sales, compared with a value of 1.2 times for Caterpillar Inc.

Doosan Group may be better known for beer and baseball, but it has also become a poster child for economic reform. Over the last two years, South Korea's 14th-largest chaebol, or conglomerate, has shrunk its operation from 29 companies to 12, sold a half-interest in its headquarters building to a local bank and formed a joint venture with a Belgian firm, Interbrew, to operate its faltering Oriental Brewery, maker of OB beer.