Edina, Minnesota-based Alliant Techsystems shelled out $1.325-billion in cash for the information systems and geospatial services operations of information solutions provider MacDonald, Dettweiler, and Associates (MDA).
MDA, started in Richmond, British Columbia, will stick instead to its information products business, building new products and operating infrastructures, and plans to use the money from the sale to buy up other information product companies.
Alliant Techsystems—which sells satellites, hypersonic engines, and spacecraft launch and orbit transfer motors—will create a new business group, ATK Space Systems, to house the MDA operations and other related American assets; it will be run by MDA executive vice-president of information systems Magued Iskander.
The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter, pending approval from MDA shareholders and North American regulatory bodies.