Cobham acquires MMI Research

Cobham announced last week that it had completed the acquisition of Hants-based MMI Research (MMI) for £13.6 million payable on completion on a debt and cash free basis. The agreement comprises cash of £12.2 million and loan notes of £1.4 million. An extra cash consideration of up to £3 million will be payable by 2010, depending on future performance. MMI serves the law enforcement and national security (LENS) markets, providing specialized cellular telecommunications to law enforcement, military, and intelligence agency customers around the world. The company, which employs twenty staff, will become part of the Cobham Avionics and Surveillance Division. “We are very pleased to have MMI join the Cobham team with its distinctive technologies and specialist customer base,” said Allan Cook, Cobham chief executive. “The combination of MMI’s complementary technologies and Cobham’s scale and market reach will strengthen our capabilities in the growing surveillance market.”

Wimborne, Dorset, U.K.-based Cobhm is one of the U.K.’s largest defense companies. As we wrote in early March, the February 2008 decision by the U.S. Air Force to award the contract to build 179 Airbus A330 air tankers to an EADS-led consortium — a consortium which includes Cobham — will give Cobham a $1 billion boost. “This is such an important contract for us,” CEO Cook said at the time. “You’ll be hearing some corks popping for sure.”