NASA relies on many different companies to help build its space exploration missions, but one company with ties to Western Washington often plays a key role.
Aerospace firm Aerojet Rocketdyne has a research and development office in Redmond. People working there have often played a key role in some of NASA’s biggest missions. Over the weekend, it was announced that the company is being sold to another firm named L3Harris for nearly $5 billion.
Aerojet Rocketdyne is based in California and will sell for $4.7 billion. The sale comes after years of involvement by company employees in Redmond with NASA missions.
The biggest and most recent are the Artemis missions to the Moon. The company designed propulsion systems for the rocket and the Orion lunar craft that orbited the Moon. The capsule recently had a successful return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
AR also played a role in a successful mission to crash into an asteroid in what was dubbed the Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART. AR built propulsion for that mission — a project to see if humans could move an asteroid and potentially use that to save the Earth from impacts. AR was also involved in a 200-million-mile journey to reach another asteroid named Bennu, building the engines for NASA’s mission to land on the asteroid and gather samples. The company’s vast aerospace expertise will now be in the hands of L3Harris, another firm working in the aerospace and defense sector.
The companies released a joint statement this past weekend.
“With this acquisition, we will use the combined talents of more than 50,000 employees to drive continuous process improvement, enhance business operations and elevate the performance of this crucial national asset,” said L3Harris’ CEO and chair Christopher E. Kubasik.
“This agreement will accelerate innovation for national security propulsion solutions while providing a premium cash value for our shareholders and tremendous benefits for our employees, customers, partners and the communities in which we operate,” Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and president Eileen P. Drake said.
A notice on Business Wire also said that Halper Sadeh, an investor rights law firm, is investigating whether the sale is fair to Aerojet shareholders, and said it is trying to see if Aerojet and its board violated federal securities laws and/or breached their fiduciary duties to shareholders.
Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission sued to block Lockheed Martin Corp. from paying $4.4 billion for Aerojet Rocketdyne. The agency said it was working to prevent the world’s largest defense contractor from eliminating the last independent U.S. missile propulsion provider.
In a release posted on the FTC’s website, FTC Bureau of Competition Director Holly Vedova said at the time, “Lockheed is one of a few missile middlemen the U.S. military relies on to supply vital weapons that keep our country safe. If consummated, this deal would give Lockheed the ability to cut off other defense contractors from the critical components they need to build competing missiles. Without competitive pressure, Lockheed can jack up the price the U.S. government has to pay, while delivering lower quality and less innovation. We cannot afford to allow further concentration in markets critical to our national security and defense.”
KIRO 7 reached out to the FTC, which said it does not comment on proposed mergers.
The company said in its release over the weekend that the merger will ensure the defense industrial base and the company’s customers will have a strengthened merchant supplier to effectively address both current and emerging threats and promote scientific discovery and innovation. The release also tabulated Aerojet Rocketdyne as a company that currently generates approximately $2.3 billion in annual revenue.
The company’s offices are based all over the U.S. In addition to the offices in Redmond, AR has offices and facilities in Canoga Park, California; Camden, Arkansas; West Palm Beach and Orlando, Florida; Huntsville, Alabama; Orange, Virginia; Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Jonesborough, Tennessee; and Carlstadt, New Jersey.
The company says that this will be an all-cash acquisition funded with existing cash and some new debt. It added that the deal is expected to be completed in 2023, subject to regulatory approvals.
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