Word: contractors
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Wonder of the Age to Blunder of the Century continued without letup last week. For one thing, the Associated Press reported that Perkin-Elmer Corp., which built the flawed mirror on the telescope, gave a subcontractor backward drawings for part of the telescope's guidance system -- forcing the prime contractor to pay the San Diego-based subcontractor, Composite Optics Inc., to rebuild it. Composite Optics reportedly made a tidy 63% profit...
...annual revenues is larger than the entire economy of Sweden. The shrinkage will effect more than 250,000 firms in 215 industries, ranging from the shipbuilders that construct aircraft carriers to the clothing companies that sew uniforms. Says Frank Shrontz, chairman of Boeing, the ninth largest U.S. defense contractor: "We are going to face a broad realignment across the whole defense spectrum, and I can't tell where that's going to hit us hardest...
...most endangered contractors will be those whose business is almost purely defense work. Northrop, the lead contractor on the B-2 bomber, counted on military sales for 92% of its 1989 revenues of $5.2 billion. Besides the Stealth bomber (price for each plane: $540 million), the company builds so- called smart weapons systems, guidance modules for MX missiles and other military hardware. After losing $80.5 million last year, the company cut costs by selling its Gulfstream IV corporate jet in January and its glass-and-steel headquarters tower in Century City, Calif., for $218 million in March. If congressional proposals...
...dislocation they cause, tighter defense budgets could lead to a more efficient industry. As the Pentagon encourages more competition for contracts, companies that grew lax during the Reagan buildup will be forced to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of their products. McDonnell Douglas, the No. 1 defense contractor, is currently competing with Boeing for a contract to build a new generation of light military helicopters. McDonnell Douglas boasted last week that its new choppers can be easily repaired in the field. Everything from their turbine engines to their pit- viper cannons can be fine-tuned with twelve simple tools...
Unlike most proxy showdowns of the past, many of the current fights are being waged at Fortune 500 companies. In March, Dallas investor Harold Simmons tried to convince shareholders at Lockheed's annual meeting that he could do better than the present management to rescue the defense contractor from its financial troubles. And on May 7, shareholders of USX (formerly U.S. Steel) will vote on raider Carl Icahn's proposal to get out of the steel business once and for all. Icahn had threatened an all-out proxy fight if the matter were not put to a vote. Already...