WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The U.S. Department of Justice announced March 5 that Ultra Electronic Holdings plc and Sparton Corporation have decided against the merger they had previously proposed, which was valued at $234 million.
According to the Justice Department, the abandonment of the merger means that the market for sonobuoys will remain competitive. Sonobuoys are used by the U.S. Navy for detection, classification, and localization of adversary submarines during underwater missions in peacetime and combat operations. Ultra Electronics and Sparton Corporation are currently the only two qualified suppliers of sonobuoys.
Ultra Electronic Holdings, a British company with headquarters in London, has core markets in the United Kingdom and North America. The company manufactures a variety of products for the defense, aerospace, security, transport and energy industries. Sparton, a publicly held company with headquarters in Schaumberg, Illinois, provides electromechanical devices for medical, military, aerospace and industrial applications.