A General Dynamics business unit will acquire Axsys Technologies, Inc, a developer of electro-optical and infrared sensors, systems, and surveillance and reconnaissance cameras for $643 million. The move will enhance the defense contractor’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, officials with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems said today. General Dynamics AIT will pay $54 a share, the officials said.Axsys, a Rocky Hill, Connecticut firm, designs and manufactures high-performance surveillance cameras, imaging systems and related motion-control technologies. The company contracts with the defense, homeland security, and public saftey industries.
Axsys has around 1000 employees located in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Michigan and New Hampshire. The company had a backlog of $162.1 million at the end of the first quarter ’09, and Axsys expect 2009 sales in excess of $280 million. The acquisition not only points to mergers and acquisitions moving ahead smoothly once again in the defense sector, but that technologies like Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) that reflect the priorities of the DoD are in particular demand.
