Just three months after embarking on an exclusive strategic alliance to serve the $2-billion-plus worldwide foam-control market, Clariant is acquiring Dalton, Ga.-based XL Performance Chemicals from Fibro Chem and its affiliates, thereby, expanding the company's global reach in the defoamer products market. The terms of the purchase were not disclosed. Manufacturing will continue to be centered in the U.S. at a facility in Greenville, S.C. operated under a toll agreement, with the potential for Clariant to transfer manufacturing to its own strategically located plants elsewhere in the world as market penetration and growth increases.