Cobham taken over by US firm

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CharlieOneSix
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Cobham taken over by US firm

#1 Post by CharlieOneSix » Sat Dec 21, 2019 2:57 pm

I find this extremely sad. Yet another all-British aviation firm to be influenced by the US. My ex-father-in-law worked for Flight Refuelling all his working life after he left the RAF at the end of WW2 - he's probably turning in his grave at this news.

Alan Cobham gave my father his first experience of flight in the early 1930's.
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Re: Cobham taken over by US firm

#2 Post by ian16th » Sat Dec 21, 2019 3:03 pm

I too am sad to see this takeover of a successful, and dare I say historic, UK company.
Sir Alan Cobham was a frequent visitor to 214 Sqdn when we were doing the trials with his IFR kit.

214 Sqdn had the FR logo on the tail fin of our a/c, along with the Nightjar from the Sqdn badge.
We were told that we were the only Sqdn to have a trademark on our a/c.
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Re: Cobham taken over by US firm

#3 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Dec 28, 2019 2:02 pm

I was just about to start a thread and then noted these very apposite comments.

I agree with both posts above.

Cobham is a world leader in aviation refueling and much more besides. I can only wonder at a government that would blithely sign away British technological excellence in this way. The legal guarantees in this case are written in the wind and the running water.

I expect we will see asset stripping in the the near future. Lady Cobham's trenchant comments say it all.
Cobham’s founding family criticised the decision, which was announced late on Friday, and said the government had timed it cynically before the Christmas break to avoid scrutiny.

Cobham, which is based in Dorset and employs 10,000 staff, is considered a pioneering world leader in air-to-air refuelling technology. It has extensive contracts with the British military and also manufactures electronic warfare and communications systems for military vehicles.

Advent’s offer to purchase Cobham was approved by shareholders in August, but delayed in September when the government intervened on national security grounds.

On Friday, however, the business secretary, Andrea Leadsom – who led the consultation over the deal – gave the go ahead. It came after Advent proposed a series of legal undertakings designed to mitigate potential national security concerns, including protecting sensitive government information and giving notice to the government over future sale plans.

Lady Nadine Cobham, the daughter-in-law of the company’s founder Sir Alan Cobham, said: “This is a deeply disappointing announcement and one cynically timed to avoid scrutiny on the weekend before Christmas.

“In one of its first major economic decisions, the government is not taking back control so much as handing it away.

“In Cobham we stand to lose yet another great British defence manufacturer to foreign ownership, through a takeover that would never have been approved by the Americans, French or Japanese, all of whom have taken steps recently to raise protections for their own defence sectors.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... us-company
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Re: Cobham taken over by US firm

#4 Post by tango15 » Sun Dec 29, 2019 3:14 pm

A personal example. Everyone knows that BAe was allowed to sell off its Corporate Jets division to Raytheon in 1993; most of the production was moved to the US and sales dropped. Most of the UK-based staff were later made redundant - a few stayed on and moved to Wichita. In the early stages of the transition, we were sent to Little Rock for a week of induction on how to do things the 'American Way'. This included a lecture on the word 'paradigm', which lasted for half an afternoon and included slides and film (I kid you not). Raytheon, perhaps more interested in building the far more profitable cruise missile, lost interest in the 125 and ownership was later transferred to Hawker Beechcraft as it became known, with production coming to an abrupt halt in 2013, following the bankruptcy of Hawker Beechcraft. A decision was taken to dismantle all the jigs and other production facilities. So ended production of the most successful British commercial aircraft ever built. Lo and behold, who should come up with a similar version (worthy of the Soviet copy of Concorde), but Pilatus. From Wiki: In May 2019, the PC-24 orderbook was reopened at the EBACE show, with about 80 delivery positions made available at a price of $10.7 million each, for late 2020 and 2021 deliveries. Of these new positions half were sold within days.[34] Pilatus intends to deliver 40 aircraft in 2019 and 50 in 2020.

Be afraid, Cobham employees, be very afraid!

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Re: Cobham taken over by US firm

#5 Post by Rwy in Sight » Sun Dec 29, 2019 8:24 pm

I don't know if Cobham made a profit or loss so my points may be irrelevant.I am not sure where I stand in such issues. The national telcom was sold to Deutche Telecom and it was an excellent moved despite the opposition parties and the employees. union complaining better service, lower costs no strikes.
We like to have companies that perform effectively and they may need some international assistance (and we are ok with it) yet we feel some companies need to remain "national champions". Where do we draw the line?

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Re: Cobham taken over by US firm

#6 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:23 pm

tango15 wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 3:14 pm
A personal example.

Be afraid, Cobham employees, be very afraid!
A very interesting post, illustrative of the pitfalls of this kind of takeover. Look what happened to Bristow or should I say the Bristow Group....

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