Loral Corporation

Loral Corporation was a small Bronx defense contractor on the verge of bankruptcy in 1972 before it was acquired by Bernard Schwartz, who over the course of the next two decades built it into a major player in the global aerospace and defense industry, acquiring 16 other defense and aerospace companies. In 1995, Loral had $5.5 billion in revenue. In 1996, Loral sold its defense electronics and system integration businesses to Lockheed Martin; its remaining units became Loral Space & Communications. The following year, several of those former Loral units were spun off by Lockheed Martin to become the core of L-3 Communications.

Loral was accused of transferring technology to China in 1996. The incident arose as a result of an investigation into the launch failure of Intelsat 708, a Space Systems/Loral–built satellite. The company settled the matter with the State Department and Department of Justice and was never indicted.

History

* 1972. Loral is on the verge of bankruptcy, Bernard Schwartz acquires it.
* 1987. Loral acquires Goodyear Aerospace Corporation, which becomes Loral Defense Systems.
* October 1990. Loral acquires Ford Aerospace, the divisions of which become Space Systems/Loral and Loral Western Development Labs.
* 1991. With Qualcomm, Loral begins the Globalstar project, and at the peak owns a 42% share in the company.
* 1994. Loral acquires IBM's Federal Systems Division, which becomes Loral Federal Systems.
* May 5, 1995. Loral acquires "Paramax", the defense unit of Unisys, for $862m in cash.
* January 8, 1996. Lockheed Martin acquires the defense electronics and system integration businesses of Loral for $9.1 billion. Loral becomes Loral Space & Communications.
* In January 2002 Loral Space and Communications Corp. was successfully prosecuted by the federal government for violations of U.S. export control law, resulting in the second largest fine in the history of the Arms Export Control Act. Loral paid a $14 million fine in 2002Mintz, John, [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/01/01/MN153988.DTL "2 U.S. space giants accused of aiding China Hughes, Boeing allegedly gave away missile technology illegally"] , "Washington Post", Jan. 1, 2003]

Other acquisitions

* Fairchild-Weston
* LTV Missiles
* Solartron

Other past units

* Loral Aeronutronic (Rancho Santa Margarita, California)
* Loral Command Control Systems
* Loral Conic (San Diego, California)
* Loral Defense Systems (Akron, Ohio)
* Loral Instrumentation (San Diego)
* Loral/Liris
* Loral ROLM Mil-Spec Computer Systems (San José, California)
* Loral Space Information Systems
* Loral Space & Range Systems (Sunnyvale, California)
* Loral Terracom (San Diego)
* Loral Vought Systems (Grand Prairie, Texas) (now part of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control)
* Loral Narda
* Loral Randtron
* Loral Western Development Laboratories
* Loral Infrared & Imaging Systems, LIRIS (Lexington, Massachusetts)
* Loral Electro Optical Systems, LEOS (Pomona, California)

References

External links

*