Word: matra
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...been at least 15 years in the making. Carpentier, having invented bio-engineered heart valves three decades ago, sought next to create the ultimate artificial heart. His efforts got a major boost in 1993 when the late French media and aerospace magnate Jean-Luc Lagardère and his Matra aviation group - which was later folded into EADS - offered materials and financial and technical support. Carpentier announced the final step of that collaboration last month, along with the prosthetic heart: the launch of Carmat, a new $9.2 million firm that will build and eventually market the heart. Carmat (for Carpentier...
Jean-Luc Lagardere trained as an engineer at Marcel Dassault's aircraft-design business in the 1950s and went on to run a small Dassault subcontractor called Matra. In 1980 he diversified into media by acquiring magazine group Hachette and today publishes 222 titles, including Paris Match, Car and Driver and Elle. A foray into TV almost bankrupted Matra, but it recovered, and the publicly traded firm--now called Lagardere Group--with $14 billion in annual sales is weathering the economic downturn. Through aggressive dealmaking, he has spun his stake in Matra into a 15% share of EADS, which makes...