LITTON DEAL ATTRACTS GOVERNMENT SCRUTINY.Byline: Josh Fineman Bloomberg NewsLitton Industries Named after inventor Charles Litton Sr., Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States, bought by the Northrop Grumman Corporation in 2001. Inc.'s unsolicited bids to buy Avondale Industries Inc. and Newport News Newport News, independent city (1990 pop. 170,045), SE Va., on the Virginia peninsula, at the mouth of the James River, off Hampton Roads, near Norfolk; inc. 1896. Shipbuilding Inc. are being reviewed for anti-trust compliance by the U.S. Defense Department, a Pentagon official said. Woodland Hills-based Litton, the No. 8 U.S. defense contractor Noun 1. defense contractor - a contractor concerned with the development and manufacture of systems of defense armed forces, armed services, military, military machine, war machine - the military forces of a nation; "their military is the largest in the region"; and one of two makers of Navy destroyers, last week offered $2.3 billion in cash, stock and assumed debt for both Newport News, the only U.S. maker of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and Avondale, which makes support vessels. Newport News and Avondale already had a merger agreement that was approved by the Pentagon. The acquisitions would make Litton the No. 1 U.S. shipbuilder, able to build any Navy ship at shipyards on the East, West and Gulf coasts. The Pentagon, which asked the U.S. Justice Department to participate in the review, doesn't expect to take as long as the two months it took to review General Dynamic Corp.'s attempt to buy Newport News, Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said. The Pentagon rejected that merger. ``Since the other two parties have not accepted anything, we don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how long it will take. But since we've already done a lot of studying of the shipbuilding industrial base, we don't think it will take a long time,'' Flood said. Avondale said Tuesday it authorized au·thor·ize tr.v. au·thor·ized, au·thor·iz·ing, au·thor·iz·es 1. To grant authority or power to. 2. To give permission for; sanction: its management to begin negotiations with Litton, which offered $38 per share in cash, or about $504 million. |
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