Defense Contractor

An Anne Arundel County cybersecurity firm has agreed to sell itself to a Virginia defense contractor for $26.8 million, the companies announced late Monday. Zytel Corp., which is based in the Fort Meade area and expects to produce revenues of about $20 million this year, specializes in cybersecurity for federal agencies working on intelligence, counterterrorism and cyber warfare. All its work is classified. Global Defense Technology & Systems Inc., the McLean firm that has agreed to acquire it, provides technology-driven services to federal agencies ranging from the Department of Defense to law enforcement.

Once among the thousands of dogs roaming Baghdad, a city that considers strays a menace, Sara eluded traps set by police and survived a car accident - albeit with a broken leg. Lately, Sara has been spending her time in the company of a family in Bel Air, a dramatic change in fortunes brought about by a U.S. military contractor with a soft spot for neglected animals. Andrew Leeson, a U.S. Navy veteran working as a private security contractor in Iraq, found Sara and named her. He fed her, hid her from the police, paid for surgery to right her front paw and made it his mission to find her a home in the U.S. He connected with SPCA International and helped arrange Sara's flight from Baghdad to the U.S. When the pup landed at Washington Dulles International Airport, he knew he had finally rescued Sara.

Maryland-based Martin Marietta moves to the top of its industry with its $3.01 billion purchase of General Electric's Aerospace Division. It's the mega-deal of a post-Cold War era in which declining Pentagon budgets will force consolidations, downsizing or close-outs on every defense contractor. For M-M workers at Bethesda headquarters, the main research and development laboratory at Relay and the Aero & Naval Systems facility at Middle River, this joining of two of the strongest players in the field is a bright spot in a cloudy landscape.

Janice and Joseph Arcieri, of Towson, announce the marriage of their daughter, Alice Louise Arcieri, to Shawn Keith Bonner, son of Janet Yourish and Keith Bonner, of Montoursville, Pa., on Oct. 22, 2011. The bride is currently employed as an attorney in Baltimore County. The groom is currently employed as a financial analyst with a defense contractor in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. The ceremony was held at the Old Otterbein Methodist Church, in Baltimore. Pastor Donald L. Burgard officiated.

A Virginia electronics firm has agreed to buy troubled defense contractor Daedalean Inc. and will likely hire the company's remaining 151employees.Eastern Computer Inc., based in Virginia Beach, has agreed to pay $4.3 million for four of five facilities run by Daedalean, which develops and manufactures training simulators for military equipment and tanks.Daedalean, based in Columbia, has operated under bankruptcy courtsupervision since May.The company's problems escalated followingadmissions of tax evasion by company owners in December.

These are tough times for AAI Corp., the Cockeysville defense contractor that state officials once touted as "a super company of the future" because of its rapid growth.AAI prospered during the Reagan administration's defense buildup, feeding on Pentagon orders for products such as a flight simulator to train F-15 pilots and turrets for the Sergeant York anti-aircraft gun. From 1979 to 1987, its work force grew from 1,500 to 3,500.But since then, AAI has eliminated nearly 2,000 jobs at its York Road complex.

It's Jay R. Sculley's time to fight off the wolves.Three years ago, when Allied Research Corp.'s board appointed as chief executive Reinald W. Carter, an accountant with experience punching cows on a ranch in Australia, they laughed and said: "Throw him to the wolves and hold him responsible."It was not a fair fight. Since early 1990, Mr. Carter has completely transformed the Baltimore-based defense contractor, taking it from annual losses and sales of about $45 million to a thriving business with sales in excess of $200 million and record earnings, which are expected to top $14 million this year.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. said Tuesday that it is laying off 37 employees at its Middle River site, part of nationwide cuts in its mission systems and sensors division. The company notified 472 U.S. employees Tuesday their jobs are being cut. Most affected employees will stay on for two weeks before leaving with severance packages, the company said. The Middle River site, which specializes in a missile launch system used on Navy ships, will employ 531 people after the cuts.

Giant defense contractor Northrop Grumman said Monday that it plans to move its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles to the Washington area by 2011, solidifying the growing importance of Washington as a center for the defense industry and other businesses. Northrop executives said they are looking for a site in Maryland, Virginia or the District and plan to identify one by this spring. The company, whose biggest customer is the Pentagon, makes military planes, tanks, ships and other equipment.

A Towson-based defense contractor was fined $300,000 yesterday in federal court in Baltimore and placed on five years of probation for defrauding the government and trying to obstruct an audit of its funds.U.S. district Judge Catherine C. Blake also ordered the company, Environmental Technologies Group Inc., to obey an agreement with the U.S. Army to institute a company-wide integrity program to prevent ethical problems.The sentence spares the company, which employs 110 people, from financial ruin.

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s plan to eliminate as many as 800 jobs — the second steep reduction for the Linthicum-based Electronic Systems division this year — could presage cutbacks by other federal contractors and further blows to the state's economy. Federal deficits — and a budget-cutting mood in Washington — have left Maryland companies less and less able to rely on government work, analysts said Thursday. Defense giants such as Northrop Grumman are particularly vulnerable, they said.

The new Harford Business Innovation Center welcomes Data Intelligence LLC to its facility in the Riverside Business Park in Belcamp near Aberdeen Proving Ground. Data Intelligence joins five other companies and two development support organizations at the HBIC, a technology business incubator designed to attract defense contractors and early-stage technology ventures to Harford County. Companies at HBIC will be pursuing business opportunities at APG and in a range of emerging technology markets.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. said Wednesday that it will lay off up to 95 employees in Greenbelt when a government contract expires in September. The employees affected are working on a multi-year contract with the National Archives and Records Administration to build a system for the agency's electronic records archive, a project now coming to an end. Lockheed said the layoffs, which could start in August and will finish by Sept. 30, will likely end up being less than the 95 total because it is working to place employees in other company jobs.

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. expects to lay off about 200 employees at the end of the month, most of them in the Baltimore area. In March, the company said it would need to cut 500 jobs in its electronic systems sector — either through buyouts or layoffs — as a result of a reduction in business it attributed to "delays and uncertainty in a number of domestic and international programs. " Spokesman Jack Martin Jr. said Friday that about 600 employees were approved for buyouts, largely in Maryland, but that there weren't enough in all areas with "an insufficient amount of work" to forestall pink slips.

KEYW Corp., a Hanover-based cybersecurity company that works with the United States military and defense contractors, said Friday it bought a privately held cybersecurity company in Columbia for $13 million. KEYW acquired JKA Technologies Inc., a nine-year-old company that offers network engineering, information assurance and software engineering. JKA had revenues of $13 million last year. It is the 10th company acquired by KEYW, which went public last year, since it was formed in August 2008.

An Anne Arundel County cybersecurity firm has agreed to sell itself to a Virginia defense contractor for $26.8 million, the companies announced late Monday. Zytel Corp., which is based in the Fort Meade area and expects to produce revenues of about $20 million this year, specializes in cybersecurity for federal agencies working on intelligence, counterterrorism and cyber warfare. All its work is classified. Global Defense Technology & Systems Inc., the McLean firm that has agreed to acquire it, provides technology-driven services to federal agencies ranging from the Department of Defense to law enforcement.

Lockheed Martin Corp. will spin off 10 business units with 4,900 employees as part of a corporate restructuring, the company said yesterday.The business units, which had combined revenues last year of $650 million, will create a new company called L3 Communications, based in New York City.Lockheed Martin's Bethesda headquarters declined to release financial details of the transaction, which it said would be subject to a definitive purchase agreement and regulatory approvals.The deal should close by the end of the first quarter, the company said.

Northrop Grumman Corp. is buying back $700 million worth of its stock in the first share repurchase in its history. The move is intended to give an added lift to Northrop's per-share price, which has been rising steadily since March but remains well below the $130 range it achieved last summer. Because the company will retire the stock it buys, each remaining share will make up a larger piece of the company and become that much more valuable. The program also indicates to Wall Street that the company's board of directors is satisfied with the recent integration of other defense companies into its mix, including Newport News Shipbuilding and, more recently, TRW. "It shows they're happy with the acquisitions that they have put in place," said Peter Arment, a stock analyst with JSA Research Inc., in Newport, R.I. "They think buying back their shares is a good use of $700 million [rather]

In the end, the money wasn't enough. Maryland and Montgomery County economic development officials offered Northrop Grumman $22.5 million in incentives to win the headquarters of the defense contractor — one of the most lucrative financial packages ever for a state not known for ponying up big dollars to win business. But last week, Maryland still lost out to neighboring Virginia, where state officials offered $12 million to $14 million in addition to undisclosed local incentives.