United States defence and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has acquired Nova Scotia-based undersea defence company Ultra Maritime for $3.45 billion US.

Don’t we want to keep our home grown industries?

  • ryper@lemmy.caEnglish
    8·
    10 days ago

    The article doesn’t mention Ultra Maritime’s previous ownership situation, but the company’s announcement of the deal from July does:

    BOSTON, Massachusetts; LONDON, UK – Cobham Ultra, a portfolio company of Advent, a leading global private equity investor, today announced that it has agreed to sell Ultra Maritime, a worldwide leader in next-generation undersea warfare solutions, to Lockheed Martin, for USD $3.45 billion.

    Since acquiring Ultra Maritime in 2022, Advent has partnered closely with the management team to transform the business into a unified, mission-focused enterprise dedicated to advancing undersea warfare solutions.

    Ultra was already foreign owned.

    This article shows how far back it goes:

    The Woodside facility has been in business in the same location under various names since 1947 — most notably, Hermes Electronics Ltd. — and was purchased by U.K.-based Ultra Electronics in 1995 as the company’s first Canadian acquisition.

    So for the last 25 years, the Dartmouth company has been part of Ultra Electronics, which also has a presence in the U.K., the U.S. and Australia.

    • ryper@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      10 days ago

      Another thing I’m just learning of today: I knew that after Cobham shut down Nova Scotia-based Cobham Tracking and Locating in 2013, several people who were let go ended up at Ultra Electronics; what I didn’t realize was Cobham went on to acquire that in 2021. I wonder if any of the ex-Cobham employees were still there, and how they reacted.