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Plans To Create World's Largest Aerospace And Defense Company Fail As EADS And BAE Shelve Merger Plans

Tyler Durden's picture




 

In the beginning there was much hope, especially among M&A ibanker advisors, that the creation of the world's largest aerospace and defense company would be not only a fee bonanza but a statement that even in Europe's ongoing economic depression one can cobble together megadeals. Then things got sour as little by little the realization that the deal may fall through started creeping in. Moments ago, all hope was lost as both parties pulled out of further merger talks. From Reuters: "- EADS and BAE Systems will not ask for an extension to their merger talks on Wednesday, sources close to the negotiations said, calling an end - for now - to a plan to create the world's largest defence and aerospace company. "We will not be filing for an extension. It's over," one of the sources said. The two companies had until 1600 GMT to ask for an extension to the talks, which have come up against fierce governmental opposition as France and Germany sought to maintain control while Britain wanted less state ownership."

Don't worry though: even though nationalistic passions managed to scuttle a simple accretive for all M&A deal, Europe will surely succeed at a banking union... or deposit union... or ceding sovereignty to a transnational entity operating out of the catering capital of the world.

Just wait.

 

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Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:12 | 2874038 CPL
CPL's picture

Boys that don't know how to share their toys.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:18 | 2874045 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

Plans To Create World's Largest Aerospace And Defense Company Fail

 

There's always drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.....that's wide open there.

 

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:16 | 2874047 LULZBank
LULZBank's picture

It was only 60 or so years ago...

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:14 | 2874042 LULZBank
LULZBank's picture

European version of MIC?

Nice...

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:16 | 2874049 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Crap, I knew there was something I forgot to sell yesterday.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:23 | 2874061 falak pema
falak pema's picture

there we have it the dichotomy between Anglo and Euro conceptions for taking control of one's own defense systems; to rival those of US MIC. 

 

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:25 | 2874124 asteroids
asteroids's picture

If they can't throw together a mega pan-european defense company what hope do they ever have in creating a unified bank/political system eh?

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:29 | 2874208 firstdivision
firstdivision's picture

Apparently, WTI is the new contender in the aerospace and defence sector.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:55 | 2874461 CPL
CPL's picture

It is the end of Drones, Cheap flights, helicopters and jet planes/air craft carriers, tanks, humvees.

 

It is the end of modern military minus rocketry...until the processing stops because there is no diesel.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:33 | 2874389 Robot Traders Mom
Robot Traders Mom's picture

God damn, is somebody trying to sabotage the military industrial complex?

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 09:23 | 2874416 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

It's social justice......we really need to give those guys a fighting chance to kill us.

 

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:35 | 2874405 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

"The two companies had until 1600 GMT to ask for an extension to the talks, which have come up against fierce governmental opposition as France and Germany sought to maintain control while Britain wanted less state ownership."

Wait until the US Gvt starts taking ownership positions in Boeing, Lockheed Martin and so on. In my opinion it is only a matter of time.

Don't think so? What about Government Motors (GM), something that was unthinkable 10 years ago?

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:57 | 2874469 CPL
CPL's picture

Governments can't keep blowing their budgets.  I doubt they could manage oil, energy and engineers.  They should stick to talking alot and lying.  The day a government buys Boeing, is the day i stop flying and stop taking the train.  (Boeing makes more than planes, they make systems)

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 09:16 | 2874510 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Government taking a position in Boeing and taking a controlling position are two different animals.

Gotta get the camel's nose under the tent first.

<I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.>

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 09:42 | 2874576 darteaus
darteaus's picture

They can keep blowing their budgets until they run out of fresh assets to sieze and exploit, e.g. Venezuela.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:35 | 2874406 LongSoupLine
LongSoupLine's picture

they probably realized how many jobs would be cut with the merger due to redundancies.  It equalled to firing the staff of one of the companies completely.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:36 | 2874413 youngman
youngman's picture

This is what happens when government gets involved in the decision..its no longer a business decision..it becomes political...

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:43 | 2874426 falak pema
falak pema's picture

war and peace (defense) IS politics in its very essence.

As Zerogovt would say; no governments, no wars! 

And he's right; just perpetual strife of private kinds, in free for all anarchy!

Until an Oligarch says : I'm king and I have divine rights for me and progeny.

And there we go again! 

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 09:13 | 2874503 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

At least in that "free for all" you can identify the criminals a lot easier.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:47 | 2874435 darteaus
darteaus's picture

According to what I recall reading in Aviation Week, the Airbus 380 was late because the designers in France used one software tool, and the manufacturers in Germany used a different sofware tool.  Neither would change, and Airbus failed in its attempt to write a software conversion.  In the end, they hired clerks to RETYPE the designs in the German software.

No way was this merger going to happen on the ground, no matter how much sense in makes financially.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 15:23 | 2875840 css1971
css1971's picture

I think that sounds like the biggest load of bollocks I've heard in a while.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:49 | 2874443 LeisureSmith
LeisureSmith's picture

Skynet fail. I'm all for it.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 08:50 | 2874449 Bicycle Repairman
Bicycle Repairman's picture

If all the major defense firms merge into one giant firm, what would war look like?

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 09:05 | 2874482 adonisdemilo
adonisdemilo's picture

the biggest problem i could see with the merger was that with all the pro europe idiots in the uk government, plus the idiots in government taking advice from committees who are pro europe, it wouldn't be very long before the uk element of the new company was sold down the river,

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 09:08 | 2874494 Element
Element's picture

The obvious question is how or would such a merger lead to a better defense capability or competitive improvements and platforms/systems?

I'm guessing no.

 

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 11:04 | 2874828 css1971
css1971's picture

Because there should only be one defence company, one way of thinking, one way of doing things...

Sounds like a recipe for getting your arse kicked in a fight. Typical politicians & bankers though. IQs of tepid tea and morals to match.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 11:23 | 2874913 Nobody For President
Nobody For President's picture

Plus one for 'IQs of tepid tea' :

Magnificant use of the English language!

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 12:38 | 2875216 supermaxedout
supermaxedout's picture

Its good for BAE, because they have now free hands to shape their future. But they should not wait and start today with alternative products fot civil use.

Fighter planes such as the ones produced by BAE are a thing of the past. The market is shrinking dramatically.   Drones are low budget items and can in principle be produced in a garage workshop using Apple Ipod as CPU.  Air to ground rockets like the Hellfire can for sure be purchased cheap from China or even Iran if one is interested in.

New technologies require fresh money in enormous amounts. Scientists do not come cheap. To keep BAE running the BoE has to print soon some extra pounds. But its good invested money in case BAE is moving away from the defense industry sector.

Airbus on the other side is making presently money and has sold its production of the next 3 to 4 years already.  So it would be clever just to wait till BAE is close to bankruptcy and then buy the parts which are worth to pay for.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 15:18 | 2875829 css1971
css1971's picture

Only till BAE build a better one then yours get knocked out of the sky. They call it the arms race for a reason, you don't get to stop and sit on your laurels, the other guy is always thinking up new ways to beat you.

Looking at their product range they don't seem to build aircraft anyway, where did you get that idea and they have a 36 billion GBP order book to work through and a nice dividend... No bankruptcy on the horizon by the looks of it. If they can commercialise some of their tech it would be interesting; HUD in cars and glasses for augmented reality for example.

Their biggest customer are first the US then UK & Saudi military, not surprisingly. So the fiscal cliff will be a worry for them.

Thu, 10/11/2012 - 03:20 | 2877121 supermaxedout
supermaxedout's picture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Systems_Taranis

Here the first version of a stealth bomber. Made its test flight in 1945 in Nazi Germany.Design was overtaken by US.  And kept for 40 years as a secret.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe6Te1nWMH4&list=LP1SBUkdfP9ZU&index=6&fe...

Northop company made in 2009 a 1:1 model according to the old plans.   When thinking over it is quite depressing that it took B AE so long to copy the Nazi drone and stealth designs.  And now BAE wants to make a money by selling this age old technology back to France and Germany. What a joke.

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 13:14 | 2875366 Offthebeach
Offthebeach's picture

Mil weapons are the perfect window breaking krudman stimulus. Especially used in turd world dumps, as opposed to blowing up underwater homes and vacant commercial strip malls. That could destabilize the repo/TBTF/"recovery".
Nothing says breaking windows stimulus like wearing out F-15 firing a couple of Hellfires into a Toyota PU with 6 boy buggerers and $300 bucks of Chinese hand weapons.
You could say we are dumping our excess that we can't consume domestically.
If the whole ME goes bunga bunga we can supply or waste our own weapons, so their will be lots of jobs, the economy will boom, the fighters can sign notes using future oil rev's, so The Squid/Whale and Co will be happy.
It's finacialization of war. 110%, NIJA loans.
WOOOHOO!

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