Toolmakers Stanley Works and Black & Decker Corp. are betting that together they can wring out more profit and better position themselves for a housing market recovery.

In an all-stock deal that would create the largest toolmaker in a fragmented market, Stanley Works on Monday agreed to pay $3.46 billion for rival Black & Decker.

The deal will cut costs by $350 million within three years, likely in part through an unspecified number of job cuts, and increase earnings per share by $1 within three years, the companies said.

There is little overlap in the companies’ products. Stanley is a leader in consumer and industrial hand tools and security, and Black & Decker in power tools.

Factory orders rise 0.9% in September

Orders to U.S. factories rebounded in September, helped by strength in autos, heavy machinery and military aircraft.

The fifth increase in six months bolstered hopes that a revival in manufacturing will help support an overall economic recovery. The worry is that if consumer spending falters in coming months, orders will slump again.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that orders rose 0.9 percent in September, slightly better than expected. Demand increased for durable goods, and non-durable goods such as chemicals and energy products.

Landry’s board OKs CEO to buy company

The chairman and CEO of Landry’s Restaurants Inc. finally got what he was after Tuesday, as the restaurant owner’s board approved his $1.2 billion all-cash offer to buy the Houston-based company.

Tilman J. Fertitta, also Landry’s president, will pay $14.75 per share in cash for it – a 37 percent premium over Monday’s closing price of $10.76. He owned about 55.1 percent of Landry’s outstanding shares as of Monday.

Landry’s owns the Rainforest Cafe chain, Charley’s Crab, Landry’s Seafood House and The Chart House.

Merck completes Schering-Plough deal

New Jersey drugmakers Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. have made their longtime partnership permanent, creating the world’s second-largest drugmaker.

The completion comes after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved the deal Thursday. Regulators in Europe and elsewhere, and shareholders of both companies, have already approved it.

The two companies have been jointly selling the cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia for years.

Workers at Star 88.3 buy control of station

WLAB-FM, Star 88.3, a Fort Wayne-based Christian-contemporary radio station, will keep its format and its dozen local employees, a spokesman for the non-profit organization that bought it said Monday.

With a loan from Huntington College and other help, executives at Star 88.3 formed the Star Educational Media Network, said Richard Cummins, Star’s executive vice president for strategic planning and development. The station’s former owner, the Indiana District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, had put it up for sale.

Star Educational Media Network on Monday announced that it had completed its purchase of the station, but Cummins declined to disclose the price.