Harris telecom units being sold

Harris Corp. will sell its telecom tools, test sets and test systems product lines business to Danaher Corp. for about $50 million in cash, officials of Melbourne, Fla., Harris said today.

The business offers products used by telecommunications maintenance and installation professionals. It employs about 100 people in Camarillo, Calif., and had fiscal 2003 revenue of $32 million, according to Harris officials.

The sale is expected to be final later this month, and Harris expects to realize a gain from the sale, company officials said.

The telecom tools and test sets business is part of Harris' Network Support unit. Harris' NetBoss network operations software business, which is also part of the Network Support unit, is not included in the sale, company officials said.

Harris provides communications products, systems and services to government and commercial customers in five areas: government communications, tactical radio, broadcast, microwave, and network support systems. The company is No. 16 on Washington Technology's 2004 Top 100 list of federal information technology contractors, with $521.6 million in federal prime IT contracting dollars and $2.1 billion in fiscal 2003 revenue. Harris employs 10,300 people.

Washington-based Danaher produces monitoring, sensing, controlling and testing products, as well as mechanics' hand tools and automotive specialty tools. The company employs 30,000 people and had revenue of $5.3 billion in fiscal 2003.