Data on mergers and aquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions in the arms industry

There is still a significant degree of acquisition activity in the arms industry, within the United States, within Europe and across the Atlantic, although current acquisition deals are not as large as the mega-deals in the 1990s. The type of companies acquired is also changing. Arms industry acquisitions are clearly geared towards technologies in high demand and targeting companies that are well placed for major government contracts.

SIPRI has been tracking M&As as one way of assessing the degree and direction of concentration of the arms industry on a national and transnational scale. Available information on M&A activity is, however, often incomprehensive, sufficient only to help tracking ownership concentration within the arms industry but not to capture the complexity of the trend. Most importantly, the civil and military sides of companies involved in transactions are rarely accounted for separately, and listings of M&A activities tell us little about the degree of operational integration (that is, actual consolidation) within the merged company.

The following tables list major acquisitions in the arms industry:

Major acquisitions in the OECD arms industries, 2008.

Major acquisitions in the North American and European arms industry, 2007.

Major acquisitions in the North American and European arms industry, 2006.

Major acquisitions in the North American and European arms industry, 2005.

Major acquisitions in the North American and European arms industry, 2004.

Major transatlantic and West European acquisitions in the arms industry, 2003.

Major transatlantic and West European acquisitions in the arms industry, 2002.

Major transatlantic and West European acquisitions in the arms industry, 2001.