Lockheed Agrees to Buy Sikorsky For $9 Billion

Lockheed Martin has been working on a deal to pay United Technologies more than $8 billion for the aerospace division.

The two companies intend to announce the transaction today, Reuters said, citing the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

It will be Lockheed’s largest acquisition since it bought Martin Marietta Corp for about $10 billion two decades ago.

John Moran, a spokesman for United Technologies, and Dan Nelson, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, declined to comment.

This is expected to make Lockheed less reliant on the fighter jet business – and focus its attention on helicopters, specifically the black hawk, which Sikorsky now makes.

Industry executives do not expect the Pentagon to block the deal, since Lockheed does not build helicopters, but said officials could ask for certain written assurances given the increased scale of Lockheed, which already posted over $45 billion in revenues in 2014.

“As the sale of Sikorksy becomes final, I will work closely with Sikorsky eadership to protect those jobs and enure that Sikorksy helicoputers continue to be made right here in Connecitcut by our skilled and talented workforce”, Murphy said.

Lockheed said in a news release Monday that the price goes down to about $7.1 billion, after taking into account tax benefits resulting from the transaction.

“Our strategic review has confirmed that exiting the helicopter business is the best path forward for United Technologies”, Gregory Hayes, UTC president and CEO had then said.

Other big aerospace companies, including Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA, Europe’s Airbus and Textron Inc, allow their helicopter businesses to operate as separate units.