L3 Harris buys engine maker for $4.7 billion for Patriot MSE, GMLRS, Javelin, Stinger and NASA SLS lunar rocket

Because of the war in Ukraine and another crisis, the year 2022 was not very rich in mergers. However, in less than a week it became known about two major deals. One of them will be discussed below.

Here's What We Know

We wrote that Advent would pay $6.4 billion for Maxar. Now there is information that L3 Harris is planning to buy Aerojet Rocketdyne, the manufacturer of the engines used in the GMLRS rockets for HIMARS, the MSE interceptors for Patriot systems, as well as the Javelin and Stinger. It also supplied engines for the world's most powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

Two years ago, Lockheed Martin planned to buy Aerojet. But first Raytheon opposed it, and then Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned the deal. The purchase would have cost Lockheed $4.4 billion, but earlier this year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced a lawsuit to block the merger, which could have struck a blow to competition in the defense industry.

L3Harris, the nation's sixth-largest defense contractor, will pay $58 for each share of Aerojet, which has $2.3 billion in annual revenue. The deal will be worth $4.7 billion, with all legal aspects to be settled in 2023.

Source: Defense News