Loral Corporation

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Loral Corporation was a small Bronx defense contractor on the verge of bankruptcy when in 1972 it was acquired by Bernard Schwartz, who over the course of the next two decades built it into a major player in the global aerospace and defense industry, acquiring sixteen other defense and aerospace companies. In 1995, Loral had $5.5 billion in revenue. In 1996 Loral sold its defense electronics and system integration businesses to Lockheed Martin; its remaining units became Loral Space & Communications. The following year, several of those former Loral units were spun off by Lockheed Martin to become the core of L-3 Communications.

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[edit] History

  • 1987. Loral acquires Goodyear Aerospace Corporation, which becomes Loral Defense Systems.
  • October 1990. Loral acquires Ford Aerospace, the divisions of which become Space Systems/Loral and Loral Western Development Labs.
  • 1991. With Qualcomm, Loral begins the Globalstar project, and at the peak owns a 42% share in the company.
  • 1994. Loral acquires IBM's Federal Systems Division, which becomes Loral Federal Systems.
  • May 5, 1995. Loral acquires Paramax, the defense unit of Unisys, for $862m in cash.
  • January 8, 1996. Lockheed Martin acquires the defense electronics and system integration businesses of Loral for $9.1 billion. Loral becomes Loral Space & Communications.
  • In January 2002 Loral Space and Communications Corp. was successfully prosecuted by the federal government for violations of U.S. export control law, resulting in the second largest fine in the history of the Arms Export Control Act. Loral paid a $14 million fine in 2002[1]

[edit] Other acquisitions

  • Fairchild-Weston
  • LTV Missiles
  • Solartron

[edit] Other past units

[edit] Reference

  1. ^ Mintz, John, "2 U.S. space giants accused of aiding China Hughes, Boeing allegedly gave away missile technology illegally", Washington Post, Jan. 1, 2003