LITTON STOCK UP ON REPORT OF TAKEOVER; GENERAL DYNAMICS MAY BE EYEING FIRM.Byline: Bloomberg News Service Shares of Woodland Hills-based Litton 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. rose 4.4 percent amid speculation that Litton could get a takeover offer for as much as $80 a share from General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE: GD) is a defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2006 it is the sixth largest defense contractor in the world[1]. The company has changed markedly in the post-Cold War era of defense consolidation. Corp. Litton's stock rose 2-1/4 to 53 on trading of 865,400 shares, more than eight times the three-month daily average. Earlier, the shares touched 54. Litton spokeswoman Kathleen Wailes and General Dynamics spokeswoman Norine Lyons declined to discuss the report in Business Week. An unnamed investment manager told Business Week a buyout of Litton could cost $80 a share. The manager said Litton and General Dynamics need to do something if ``they are to survive in the consolidating aerospace and defense industry.'' An $80-a-share offer would value Litton at $3.8 billion, a ``high premium,'' said JSA JSA - Japanese Standards Association. Research analyst Paul Nisbet. A combination of General Dynamics and Litton would bring together the only producers of U.S. Navy destroyers, and would expand General Dynamics' presence in the aerospace electronics market. General Dynamics now produces destroyers, submarines, tanks and communications systems In telecommunication, a communications system is a collection of individual communications networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and data terminal equipment (DTE) usually capable of interconnection and interoperation to form an integrated whole. for the U.S. military. ``They may want to get a little more sophisticated than ships and tanks,'' Nisbet said. Litton's computer system consulting services Noun 1. consulting service - service provided by a professional advisor (e.g., a lawyer or doctor or CPA etc.) service - work done by one person or group that benefits another; "budget separately for goods and services" , ship radar systems, portable computer systems, computer display components, and aircraft navigation systems, are ``very desirable,'' Nisbet said. An acquisition of Litton would also expand General Dynamics' political clout. Litton builds its destroyers in Pascagoula, Miss., the hometown of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. For the first nine months of the fiscal year ending April 30, Litton's net income was $117.9 million, or $2.47 a share, up from $108.2 million, or $2.26, for the year-earlier period. The stock of Falls Church Falls Church, independent city (1990 pop. 9,578), NE Va., a residential suburb of Washington, D.C.; inc. as a town 1875, as a city 1948. There is diverse light manufacturing, including telecommunications equipment. , Va.-based General Dynamics rose 9/16 to 77. Litton isn't the only company analysts think General Dynamics might want. For more than a year, there has been persistent speculation among analysts that General Dynamics may eventually try to buy 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 Co., the only other U.S. producer of submarines and the only aircraft carrier manufacturer. General Dynamics and Newport News earlier this year signed a partnership agreement to produce the U.S. Navy's newest submarines. |
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