Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Boeing rejects Aerojet bid for ULA

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: September 17, 2015 at 10:19:22 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Boeing rejects Aerojet bid for ULA

Boeing rejects Aerojet bid for United Launch Alliance
By Ryan Maass | Sept. 16, 2015 at 3:45 PM

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NATIONAL HARBOR, Md., Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Boeing has rejected an offer by Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. to buy the United Launch Alliance, the company's top official announced on Wednesday.
Aerojet Rocketdyne offered Boeing $2 billion to acquire ULA. The launch service company was formed in 2006 as a joint venture between Boeing and Lockeed Martin, with both companies splitting the profits evenly. It provides spacecraft launch services for the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA and other organizations.
ULA announced it was undergoing significant restructuring in 2014 in an effort to bring the costs of launch operations down. Experts speculate a hypothetical purchase of ULA by Aerojet Rocketdyne would shake up the global rocket marketplace, an industry feeling increasing pressure as more private forces like Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin aim to offer low-cost launches.
However, Boeing is showing no willingness to let go of ULA.
"[ULA will be] a huge part of our portfolio going forward," Boeing Defense, Space & Security president Chris Chadwick told Defense News. "This bid, we've really not spent much time on it at all, because we're focusing in a totally different direction," he said.
Aerojet Rocketdyne's offer was pending for several weeks, as the company hoped to make the big announcement during this week's AFA Air and Space Conference.

© 2015 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Boeing rejects Aerojet Rocketdyne bid for ULA launch venture

By Andrea Shalal

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The Boeing logo is seen at their headquarters in Chicago, April 24, 2013. REUTERS/Jim Young
By Andrea Shalal
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (Reuters) - Boeing Co <BA.N> on Wednesday said it had rejected an unsolicited bid from Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc <AJRD.N> for United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 rocket launch venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp <LMT.N>.
"The unsolicited proposal for ULA is not something we seriously entertained," Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said.
Boeing said it remained committed "to ULA and its business, and to continued leadership in all aspects of space, as evidenced by the agreement announced last week with Blue Origin," a company owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos that is designing the engine for a new rocket being designed by ULA.
Lockheed declined comment, saying it did not discuss transactions with other companies.
A source familiar with the matter said Lockheed's refusal to comment did not reveal any disagreement between Lockheed and Boeing, and both companies agreed to reject the bid.
Aerojet spokesman Glenn Mahone declined comment, saying the company had a policy not to comment on negotiations with other companies until some agreement had been signed.
Sources familiar with the matter last week told Reuters that Aerojet board member Warren Lichtenstein, the chairman and chief executive of Steel Partners LLC, submitted a preliminary $2 billion cash offer on behalf of the engine maker in early August.
Boeing and Lockheed did not take the bid seriously because it lacked details and the due diligence usually present in more formal offers, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
However, Aerojet remains interested in ULA, despite Boeing's public rejection, and is still engaged in discussions about presenting a more formal bid, the sources said.
Analysts said the bid was a strategic move by Aerojet to shut out rival Blue Origin, whose new engine is favored by ULA for use in its new Vulcan rocket. ULA has said Blue Origin's engine program is about two years ahead of Aerojet's work on the AR-1 engine, a claim Aerojet disputes.
Air Force General John Hyten, commander of Air Force Space Command, said the decision was up to Boeing and Lockheed.
"Our job is to make sure that we have assured access to space. The business side of the house, that's their business, Hyten told Reuters at the Air Force Association conference.
Hyten told a news conference later that he saw a far more robust launch industry now than a decade ago when delays in government launches and a dearth of commercial orders prompted Boeing and Lockheed to merge their launch businesses.
He said investment by privately-held companies like Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Blue Origin had also changed the dynamic, since they were looking at opportunities with NASA, satellite operators and even in deep space travel.
Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing's defense division, said Boeing had not given any serious consideration to the Aerojet bid, and was not looking for other offers.
"You look at ULA with 99 consecutive launches without an accident. We're the best in industry. Others are trying to attain the record we have," he told reporters at the conference. "We think we have a real good competitive position, and we're committed for the long term."
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by David Gregorio and Christian Plumb)

Copyright © 2015 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Boeing Defense Head: ULA Not Being Sold
By Aaron Mehta and Andrew Clevenger 5:57 p.m. EDT September 16, 2015

(Photo: ULA/US Air Force)

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Boeing's top defense official said the company has no interest in selling off the United Launch Alliance (ULA), despite a bid by Aerojet Rocketdyne to buy the company.

Chris Chadwick, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, said ULA will be "a huge part of our portfolio going forward" and that there was "no serious consideration" given to the bid offer, reportedly for $2 billion.

"This bid, we've really not spent much time on it at all, because we're focusing in a totally different direction," he said.
A Lockheed spokesman declined to respond to Chadwick's comments, and an Aerojet representative did not respond by deadline.
Asked Wednesday about the industrial base for the space sector, Gen. John Hyten, commander of Air Force Space Command, said it wasn't something he worried about. Ten years ago, commercial launches dried up to the point where Hyten was worried the industry wouldn't survive, he said.
He rattled off a list of companies active in the launch market: Blue Origin, SpaceX, Aerojet Rocketdyne, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed and Orbital ATK.
"We have a private investment coming into the launch business now. What private investment was coming into the launch business 10 years ago? It was zero. The only investment coming into the launch business 10 years ago was public investment," he said.
In a robust market, industry will determine the competitive landscape, he said.
"They're going to make decisions based on their business, whatever that business is. My job is, to work with that industry, however that industry resolves itself, to make sure we maintain assured access to space. And that's what I'm going to do," Hyten said.
ULA is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, with profits split 50/50. The company has historically had a stranglehold on military launch for the Air Force, but is facing competition for the first time from the Elon Musk-backed SpaceX.
That competition has led some to wonder whether the two companies could sell ULA off.
DEFENSE NEWS
Aerojet's Reported ULA Bid Shakes Up Space Sector

Asked whether Boeing would be interested in selling ULA off in the future, Chadwick said, "it's not even in our expansive thought at this point in time," adding, "we think we have a really good competitive position and we're committed for the long term."

The company is currently funding development efforts for both Aerojet's AR-1 and Blue Origin's BE-4 engines as potential replacements for the Russian-made RD-180 engine, used in the Atlas V launch vehicle.

Last week, however, ULA announced a stronger agreement with Blue Origin. Asked whether that means the company is abandoning the Aerojet engine effort, Chadwick indicated that the company is leaning toward Blue Origin.

"Right now, we're going to continue to keep options open and see how technology goes forward, but our focus is on the path we've come out in the last few days with," he said.

Email: amehta@defensenews.com

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