Amalgamation and Capital

At a special 16 March 2023 meeting, executives of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. announced that 99.7-percent of the company’s stockholders had voted in favor of L3Harris Technologies’ proposed acquisition of the storied, El Segundo, California-headquartered aerospace propulsion firm and its diversified holdings.

Comes now 28 July 2023 and an announcement from L3Harris—the American technology company, defense contractor, and information technology services provider—heralding the completion of its acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne.

L3Harris chair and CEO Christopher E. Kubasik stated: “I’m thrilled to welcome more than five-thousand employees to the L3Harris team today. With national security at the forefront, we’re combining our resources and expertise with Aerojet Rocketdyne’s propulsion and energetics capabilities to ensure that the Department of Defense and civil space customers can address critical mission needs globally.”

Ross Niebergall will serve as president of L3Harris’s Aerojet Rocketdyne segment—the company’s fourth-largest after its Integrated Mission Systems, Space & Airborne Systems, and Communication Systems divisions.

Mr. Niebergall remarked: “Our customers demand a competitive environment that produces innovative, agile solutions. We will expand on the strong Aerojet Rocketdyne heritage to enhance production and deliver on those expectations.”

The acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne diversifies L3Harris’s portfolio, adding considerable long-cycle backlog and broad expertise conducive to expansion of opportunities in the missile defense systems, hypersonics, and advanced rocket engine sectors.

Henceforth, Aerojet Rocketdyne will be known as Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company.

Aerojet Rocketdyne is an American manufacturer of rocket, hypersonic, and electric propulsion systems for defense, civil, commercial, and space applications. The company is an amalgam of two formerly discrete entities: Aerojet, which traces its origins to the 1915 establishment of the General Tire and Rubber Company—which later diversified into the fields of broadcasting (RKO General) and aeronautics—and Rocketdyne, a division of famed but defunct U.S. aircraft OEM North American Aviation. Spun off from its parent company in 1955, Rocketdyne was founded to develop rocket motors deriving of the German V-2 rockets of the Second World War.

On 20 December 2020, it was announced that Lockheed Martin would acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.4-billion. However, the deal, which was expected to close in 2022’s first quarter, was opposed by Raytheon Technologies. In time, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) blocked the proposed acquisition, alleging it portended the elimination of the U.S.’s largest independent maker of rocket motors. In February 2022, Lockheed withdrew from the deal.

In December 2022, L3Harris Technologies agreed to buy Aerojet Rocketdyne for a cash payment of $4.7-billion. Whether or not the FTC again opposes the latter company’s acquisition remains to be seen.

FMI: www.l3harris.com