Doug Oberhelman, the CEO of Caterpillar Inc. has joined the company less than five months back and already outpaced his predecessor in acquisitions as he looks for means and ways to boost sales to the developing markets.

The firm has announced yesterday that it will acquire the US mining equipment manufacturer Bucyrus International Inc worth seven decimal six billion dollars.

Oberhelman had so far invested nine decimal four billion dollars in acquisitions since he had taken over in the month of July. Jim Owens, his predecessor had invested in the tune of one decimal nine billion dollars in acquisitions during his tenure which lasted more than six years.

Mark Demos, a fund manager for Fifth Third Asset Management, located in Minneapolis stated that Oberhelman seeing the pace at which the emerging markets are growing took the decision of buying technology rather than doing it internally. Demos further stated that the markets are quite big and people do take a chance of buying.

Caterpillar is all set to buy Bucyrus which supplied shovels when the Panama Canal was constructed between 1904 and 1914. It is purchasing the firm for expanding the range of mining equipments that Caterpillar offers. Caterpillar also wants to tap the booming demand for commodities. In London, copper, gold and tin have traded at record prices in the last month as other mining firms are struggling to meet demand.

Caterpillar saw a rise in their shares in the tune of seventy eight cents equivalent to one percent and closed at eighty one decimal eight two dollars as found yesterday in the New York Stock Exchange. The shares advanced as far as forty four percent in this year. Caterpillar agreed to give ninety two dollar per share for Bucyrus in cash.