Word: ltv
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency has determined that the sale of LTV's missile technology to the French firm poses major security problems. Thomson-CSF, aware that access to LTV's Stealth technology would never be approved, brought the Carlyle Group into the deal specifically to buy the aircraft operations. Still, critics object that Thomson-CSF is essentially buying U.S. secrets. Asks a Pentagon insider rhetorically: "Why else would Thomson buy a bankrupt LTV in a declining defense market except to get the technology...
AMERICANS WINCE WHEN SOMEthing distinctly "American," like California beachfront or Rockefeller Center, is bought by foreigners. But an April 10 decision by a federal bankruptcy court in New York to allow the sale of the Texas-based LTV Aerospace and Defense Co. to Thomson-CSF, whose principal stockholder is the French government, raised questions far more vexing than matters of mere national pride. About 75% of LTV's products are defense- related, including such advanced systems as the Multiple Launch Rocket System and the B-2 Stealth bomber. French ownership would effectively guarantee French acquisition of LTV's classified American...
...other hand, for six years LTV has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows for rehabilitation rather than liquidation of a company's assets. Without a bail-out from somewhere, LTV is almost certain to go belly up, leaving a $3.1 billion pension shortfall for more than 100,000 current and retired -- American -- employees. Beyond secrets and beyond jobs, what's at stake is how the U.S. should cope with an industry that is bound to shrink as the country comes home from the cold...
Complicating matters further, Thomson-CSF, with $6.8 billion in sales last year, recruited the Carlyle Group, an investment concern specializing in defense firms, to join in the offering for LTV. Their combined bid of $450 million bested by $65 million an offer by a consortium of two U.S. weapons- makers, Martin-Marietta and Lockheed Corp. After a protracted review process, Manhattan bankruptcy judge Burton Lifland awarded LTV's missile division to Thomson-CSF and its aircraft operations to Carlyle...
...experts dispute that Chapter 11 cases can run up huge -- and often excessive -- legal and professional fees, especially when big companies are involved. LTV Corp., a steel and aerospace conglomerate, which had sales of $6 billion last year, has forked out more than $100 million in legal fees since it entered Chapter 11 in 1986 yet remains mired in debt. As the megacase grinds on, LTV's bills are piling up at the astonishing rate of $2.5 million a month...