Lockheed Martin Corp, Bethesda, Maryland is putting all its eggs into the aerospace and defense electronics and systems market and is getting rid of 10 non-core communications technology businesses by bundling them into a new company that will be called L3 Communications and will be 50%-owned by Lehman Brothers Capital Partners III LP and 15%-owned by management. Lockheed will retain a 35% stake. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed pending final agreement. Together, the 10 businesses have about 4,900 employees and did over $650m last year. No staff lay-offs are seen. The businesses include the company’s Wideband Systems unit in Salt Lake City, its Communications Systems unit in Camden, New Jersey, and eight other, smaller, high-technology, product-oriented companies. The Wideband Systems unit last week won a $27.9m contract to provide three data-link systems in support of reconnaissance and surveillance data collection aboard aircraft carriers. There is also a display systems unit in Atlanta, telemetry and instrumentation in San Diego, and other units in Sarasota, Florida: Warminster, Pennsylvania; Menlo Park, California; Hauppage, New York, Rancho Cordova, California: and in Woburn, Massachusetts.
