In a move that immediately sparked concerns among anti-trust advocates, weapons manufacturer Raytheon and aerospace giant United Technologies agreed Sunday to a $120 billion merger that was described as one of the largest-ever combinations of two defense contractors.
The merger, if approved by the government and the two companies’ shareholders, would create what the Washington Post described as a “military-industrial behemoth” with the power to rival Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor.
“The company should be expected to make a strong play for the Defense Department’s emerging hypersonic missiles programs,” the Post reported. “It also will give Raytheon a sizable foothold in the commercial aerospace market for the first time in recent memory. Before the combination, the lion’s share of Raytheon’s revenue came from the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies.”
On Twitter, anti-trust advocate Daniel Hanley said the United Technologies and Raytheon merger “should be dead on arrival.”
In an interview on CNBC Monday, President Donald Trump—otherwise a fan of large weapons companies—also expressed concern about the proposed merger.
“When I hear United and I hear Raytheon, when I hear they’re merging, does that make it less competitive? It’s already not competitive,” Trump said. “I just want to see competition. They’re two great companies, I love them both. But I want to see that we don’t hurt our competition.”
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