COLUMBIA, Md., 25 September 2006. Essex Corporation has entered into a binding purchase agreement to acquire Adaptive Optics Associates Inc. (AOA) from Metrologic Instruments Inc. in exchange for roughly $40.3 million.
Essex serves the defense market with optical solutions involving not only transmitting data along fiber-optic networks and locating missiles.
AOA, maker of solutions to correct light distortions involved in fiber-optic networks, is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., with facilities in East Hartford, Conn., and Lancaster, Calif. Essex expects AOA to be profitable, with more than $36 million in pro forma revenue for 2006, of which more than 85 percent is for U.S. Government customers.
Under the terms of the Agreement, Essex will purchase all of the outstanding capital stock of AOA for $40,250,000 in cash (exclusive of accounting and attorney fees and customary closing costs and adjustments).
Essex expects that the acquisition will be accretive, subject to a final purchase price accounting analysis. The purchase is being financed through an expanded revolving credit facility with the Bank of America.
The acquisition is expected to close on or about October 1, 2006, subject to agreement on all material terms and other customary closing conditions for transactions of this nature.