The US electronics firm, Honeywell, in a bid to move further into the space industry, has moved to buy the Canadian spacecraft and component manufacturer, COM DEV. An agreement has been signed between the two firms for the sale to go ahead. The aggregate purchase price is approximately Can$455 million (US$345 million), net of cash and debt acquired. The deal does not include COM DEV’s interests in the exactEarth Earth observation satellite constellation, which is likely to be spun off from COM DEV with the shares remaining in the hands of current COM DEV shareholders.
COM DEV claims to have supplied components to 80% of all commercial communication satellites. The firm has also bid to be a supplier for the OneWeb satellite constellation, which may number more than 650 spacecraft.
