BAE's US arm closes first deal with Raytheon

In buying an airborne radio unit, BAE Systems' U.S. subsidiary closes the first of two deals it arranged with what is now Raytheon Technologies.

BAE Systems’ U.S. subsidiary has closed the first of its two major acquisitions announced in January: the $275 million acquisition of the former Raytheon airborne technical radios business.

In a regulatory filing Monday, the company said the business employees approximately 100 employees and will become part of BAE Systems Inc.’s C4ISR systems business area within its electronic systems sector.

The much larger second deal still awaits closure, where BAE is paying $1.9 billion to acquire Collins Aerospace military GPS business from what is now Raytheon Technologies Corp. That deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

Raytheon and United Technologies were required by federal antitrust regulators to divest the respective radio and GPS businesses so the companies could proceed on their merger to create RTC.

Then in April, RTC found a buyer for its space optics business in Amergent Technologies. That was the third divestiture required by the Justice Department as a precondition for the merger to move forward.