Peer Bearing (a branded division of SKF AB, Sweden), was acquired this past summer by SKF after more than a year of due diligence and negotiations.

A third-generation family-owned bearing manufacturer, Peer was founded in 1941 by Nathan Spungen as Archer Bearing Company. It was later renamed Peer.

Peer reportedly had 2007 sales in the neighborhood of USD $100 million and has approximately 1,400 employees worldwide.

Usually, an acquisition of this size would necessarily involve layoffs and cutbacks at the acquired company as the parent right-sizes and looks to leverage operating synergies.

Instead, not only is Peer remaining whole, it is maintaining its separate corporate identity and Peer trade name even as SKF otherwise pursues a single worldwide branding strategy.

But more than the unique way SKF is integrating Peer, it's what the Spungens did for employees after selling the company. The family took $6.6 million of the proceeds and gave it to Peer's 230 employees in appreciation. Awarded on a years-of-service scale, a few employees received as much as $100,000. The average was almost $29,000.

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