Mercury furthers mission computing push with Richland acquisition
By
Ross Wilkers
Mercury Systems has made its second major mission computing-related acquisition in eight months through its purchase of avionics software company Richland Technologies.
Mercury Systems has acquired Duluth, Ga.-based avionics hardware and software maker Richland Technologies in an effort to further expand in the mission computing arena across commercial and military markets.
Terms of the transaction were undisclosed. RTL is Mercury's second major mission-computing acquisition in seven months following the November 2016 deal for Switzerland-based military and aerospace application maker Creative Electronic Systems.
Duluth, Ga.-headquartered RTL builds embedded graphics software for use in commercial and military aerospace and also is a provider of systems, hardware development and safety certification services.
Mercury eyes RTL's U.S. footprint as a compliment to Creative Electronic Systems' presence in overseas markets. The combination of RTL and CES also aims to position Mercury as a more high-profile systems engineering provider in markets such as defense platform management and C4I -- command, control, communications, computers and intelligence.
Including Richland, Mercury has made five acquisitions in three years after prior deals for Delta Microwave, Creative Electronic Systems, Microsemi Corp. and Lewis Innovative Technologies.
The Richland transaction comes nearly one month after Mercury expanded its revolving credit line into a five-year, $400 million revolver for both acquisitions and internal investments. In conjunction, Mercury also paid down the remainder of a $192.5 million loan with cash on hand.