Industry Week in Review – November 30, 2012
Over the past week, the Obama administration noted it would be willing to keep roughly 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan post formal combat in 2014. Earlier this month, Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan as well as commander of International Security Assistance Force (“ISAF”) nominee, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., recommended keeping troops in Afghanistan post the administration’s December 2014 deadline. Specifically, Gen. Allen recommended maintaining a force between 6,000 and 15,000 U.S. troops to conduct training and counterterrorism operations. The size of the training, advisory, and counterterrorism force is currently under negotiations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Many consulting firms argue that a residual force of at least 30,000 troops would be needed to be effective.
Honeywell claimed it is readying itself for the bulk of sequestration cuts to occur, planning for 80% of the Jan. 2nd cuts to take place. “We recognize these cuts are going to happen,” said Mike Madsen, president of Honeywell’s defense and space unit. “We’re not really fighting these—they need to occur.” The company has even gone so far as incorporating sequestration in its public planning.
Big Movers
Bombardier Inc. (Up 13.8%) – Shares were up this week after the company announced it made the biggest sale of business aircraft in its history worth potentially up to $7.8 billion. VistaJet, a private European company that provides luxury chartered flights, has placed firm orders for 56 Bombardier Global jets valued at $3.1 billion and acquired options for a further 86 Global jets. Steve Ridolfi, the president of Bombardier Business Aircraft, says this is a historic order for Bombardier.
Select Relevant Transactions
KEYW Corporation acquired Rsignia, Inc., a provider of advanced cybersecurity solutions to industry and government customers, in an asset purchase. The acquisition enhances KEYW’s Cyber Awareness and Response platform, “Project G” by providing the company with a scalable solution for monitoring and mitigating malicious internet packet activity, network monitoring and analysis, and forensics analysis. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
