INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS

General Signal, Reliance Electric to Merge: General Signal Corp., seeking critical mass to compete globally in the industrial equipment market, has agreed to acquire Reliance Electric Co. of Cleveland in a stock swap valued at about $1.4 billion. The transaction gives Stamford, Conn.-based General Signal access to Reliance’s fledgling fiber-optics business. Telephone companies need fiber optics and other digital equipment to upgrade their networks and compete with cable television along the information superhighway. Wall Street painted the merger as a good fit. Both companies have been making industrial equipment since 1904.