Lockheed to sell part of energy business, sharpen platform focus
By
Ross Wilkers
In another case of portfolio shaping, Lockheed Martin has found a buyer for part of its energy business as it continues to sharpen its focus on the platform business.
Lockheed Martin said Wednesday it has agreed to sell a part of its energy line of business to global consulting and engineering company TRC Companies.
TRC will purchase Lockheed’s Distributed Energy Solutions group also known as DES, which provides IT and professional services to utility customers in the electric power and gas sectors.
Terms of the transaction were undisclosed, but Lockheed said the move is part of a strategy to focus its Lockheed Martin Energy line of business on products and technology for the Defense Department and others.
It also comes a day after Lockheed’s chief executive described the company’s changes over the past few years amid an ongoing shift in the government market’s structure, highlighted by the divestiture of its then-information systems and global solutions segment to Leidos three years ago and near-concurrent acquisition of helicopter maker Sikorsky.
“We have transitioned our portfolio over the last few years, several years toward more of a platform provider. We used to have, as you recall, IS&GS, which was a very strong services component of the portfolio,” CEO Marillyn Hewson said in an earnings call with investors. “At the time that we divested that element, we brought in Sikorsky, a platform-based program. In addition to that though, of course we've got our sensors, our tactical missiles or air and missile defense, a lot of components that go on those platforms.
"But if you just look at from that standpoint, you could even argue to some extent that those are platforms.”
Lockheed’s soon-to-be former DES business provides services in energy efficiency, demand response, beneficial electrification, distributed energy resource management, data analytics, IT and operational technology systems integration and operation, cybersecurity, cloud computing and web services. Some of that work mirrors what IS&GS did, particularly systems integration.