Mercury Systems to acquire Physical Optics Corporation

Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Mercury will acquire POC for an all-cash purchase price of USD 310 million, subject to net working capital and net debt adjustments. Based in Torrance, California, POC is a designer, developer, and integrator of advanced technologies primarily focused on avionics & mission subsystems for defense applications. The company is currently expected to generate revenue of over USD 120 million for its fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. “The acquisition of Physical Optics Corporation adds important capabilities on new and existing airborne programs in the platform and mission management market,” says Mark Aslett, Mercury’s president and chief executive officer, in a press release. “The combination of Mercury’s safety-certifiable and secure avionics processing solutions with POC’s deep portfolio of data storage, transfer, and encryption technologies will enable us to deliver more complete, pre-integrated avionics subsystems to our customers. POC has a similar growth profile to Mercury, supported by several key design wins that are transitioning into production. We are very excited for POC to join the Mercury team.” “This acquisition broadens our avionics product and technology portfolio to help our defense Prime customers, the U.S. Navy, Army and Air Force deploy next-generation open-architecture mission computing solutions,” adds Amela Wilson, senior vice president, Mercury Mission. “Similar to Mercury, POC is well-positioned in faster-growing segments of the defense market and benefits from secular growth drivers, such as supply chain delayering. Together, Mercury and POC can provide customers new capabilities and subsystem solutions.” POC employs approximately 350 people and holds over 160 patents worldwide, covering 60 technologies. They support mission-critical programs with common-use products spanning data transfer systems, flight data recorders, mission computers, high-definition data and video recorders, and advanced encryption devices. The transaction is currently expected to close during Mercury’s fiscal 2021 second quarter ending January 1, 2021.