General Dynamics finds buyer for satellite antenna unit
By
Ross Wilkers
General Dynamics continues its portfolio reshaping effort by finding a buyer for the company's satellite antenna division.
General Dynamics Mission Systems -- the defense company’s communications hardware segment -- is undertaking some portfolio reshaping of its own just like its counterparts in GD’s IT services unit.
GDMS has agreed to sell its satellite communications antenna systems business known as “SATCOM Technologies” to electronic component maker Communications & Power Industries, the companies said Monday.
Terms of the transaction were undisclosed, while General Dynamics and CPI expect to close the deal later this calendar year.
“General Dynamics Mission Systems is divesting its SATCOM Technologies business area in order to better align its business efforts in core areas supporting U.S. Department of Defense and government agency customers,” GDMS spokesman Tom Crosson told us Monday in an emailed statement.
“With the transition to CPI, General Dynamics Mission Systems will be better positioned to focus on businesses that are more tightly aligned with our defense market core,” Crosson added.
SATCOM Technologies designs, builds and installs communications antenna systems along with related radio frequency products and electronics that include feed components, amplifiers, converters and antenna control systems.
The divestiture of SATCOM Technologies falls under General Dynamics’ strategy to further hone both the mission systems and IT services segments for market opportunities.
As GD Executive Vice President Chris Marzilli told us in July, the company wants to achieve “deep integration” of both businesses amid significant changes in their markets and the acquisition of CSRA to bolster the IT services segment.
General Dynamics has been busy on the divestiture front since the CSRA deal closed in April 2018 to keep the overall portfolio more aligned with core markets, as the statement on the deal with CPI indicated.
Last year, General Dynamics sold CSRA’s former Navy systems engineering and acquisition unit to CACI International for $80 million and a citizen-facing call center business to Maximus for $400 million.
Then in April of this year, General Dynamics divested a Next Generation 911 business to Comtech Telecommunications Corp. for an undisclosed sum. That 60-employee business primarily works with state and local public safety agencies.
Covington & Burling LLP's government contracts and communications regulatory practice advised CPI on the deal with General Dynamics and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP was M&A counsel.