27 Aug 06. Boeing Co. has agreed to take a minority stake in Huneed Technologies, a South Korean manufacturer of military communications systems. Boeing, which did not disclose terms, said the investment is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed by the end of September. The deal, signed Saturday, was announced in separate news releases. Huneed, however, said it will issue new common shares to Boeing, making the world’s largest aerospace company the second-biggest shareholder after Huneed Chairman and CEO Eugene Kim.Yoejo Kim, a Huneed official, said Chicago-based Boeing will pay $20m to purchase 16.5 million shares in the company. After dilution, Boeing will own about 17.4 percent of Huneed shares, Kim said. Huneed in its release called the plan a “strategic investment” by Boeing.Gumpo, South Korea-based Huneed had sales in 2005 of 48bn won ($50m), Kim said, with about 90 percent of that business being with the South Korean military.
Comment: This is a smart move by Boeing in buying into high-technology and low manufacturing cost base to beef up its communications Division currently undertaking the huge JTRS Program. Technology from Korea could flow into this project.
31 Aug 06. Ericsson acquires assets of Finnish software company Distocraft. Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) today announced that it had reached an agreement with Finnish company Distocraft Oy to acquire the assets of Distocraft’s business. The company, with 42 employees, specializes in software development for mobile network performance management. In today’s highly competitive environment, increasingly more focus is being placed on network and service management to reduce costs without compromising quality of service. Performance management systems give operators information about their networks performance, allowing them to improve efficiency and reduce time-to-market. With this acquisition, Ericsson will expand the capabilities of its market-leading OSS portfolio, addressing both new technologies, such as HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access), IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and 3G LTE (3G Long-Term Evolution), and multivendor environments.
30 Aug 06. Esterline reports Q3 earnings of 43 cents. Third-quarter net income fell to $11.2m, or 43 cents per diluted share, at Esterline Corp., down from $11.9m, or 46 cents per diluted share a year earlier. Sales at the Bellevue-based maker of products for the aerospace and defense markets (NYSE: ESL) rose to $248.4m from $209.9m in 2005. Earlier this month, officials at Esterline lowered third-quarter guidance, citing a fatal June accident at one of their British subsidiaries. The blast at Wallop Defence Systems facility in the United Kingdom damaged different parts of the facility. Esterline CEO Robert Cremin said in a statement that “the newer, more profitable facility is still closed and will remain so until the formal investigation concludes sometime in 2007.”
31 Aug 06. Eurotech, the Italian IT hardware-maker, has gone hostile with its third attempt this month to acquireRadstone Technology, the UK defence technology company. Radstone rejected the approach as “significantly” undervaluing the company and its prospects. The Italian group yesterday made an offer of 360p per share in cash, valuing the Towcester-based Rad-stone at £109m. It had made two previous approaches on August 1 and August 11, first offering “up to 350p per share” and then “not less than 350p per share”. Roberto Siagri, president of Eurotech, said the 360p-a- share offer represented”a unique opportunity to accelerate the company’s progress to the next stage of its development”. Eurotech and Radstone work in the embedded computing market, although Eurotech has more business in commercial sectors such as manufacturing and telecommunications, while 95 per cent of Radstone’s business is in the defence sector, making products fitted in Abrams tanks, radars, sonars and military radios. Gartmore Investment and Morley Fund Management, wh