WASHINGTON — Satellite manufacturer and hardware provider MDA Corp. and Earth-observation company DigitalGlobe have re-submitted paperwork to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) after cancelling the original version.
The companies, which announced their $2.4 billion merger Feb. 24, said July 12 that they were re-filing a “joint voluntary notice” in order to give extra time for the agency to evaluate the merger.
Chaired by the Department of the Treasury, CFIUS is an interagency committee tasked with assessing whether transactions that could give control of an American business to a foreign entity would harm national security. MDA is a Canadian company, but is transitioning to become a U.S. company by 2019. An MDA subsidiary called SSL MDA Holdings, which also has Palo Alto, California-based satellite manufacturer Space Systems Loral, is conducting the acquisition of Englewood, Colorado-based DigitalGlobe.
MDA and DigitalGlobe did not disclose the reason for the retraction and resubmission. Once the re-filing is accepted, the companies said CFIUS will kick off a new 30-day review period.
“MDA and DigitalGlobe believe that CFIUS will conclude its consideration of the transaction with no unresolved issues of national security,” the companies said.
Shareholders from both companies are meeting to approve the merger July 27, following which the companies anticipate it will close “during the current calendar quarter or shortly thereafter,” barring any regulatory barriers.
