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| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| NYSE: XLS | |
| Industry | Defense |
| Predecessor | ITT Corporation's defense division |
| Founded | October 2011; 13 years ago (2011-10) |
| Defunct | May 29, 2015 (2015-05-29) |
| Fate | Acquired byHarris Corporation |
| Successor | L3Harris |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | David F. Melcher (president and CEO) |
| Revenue | 2,230,000,000 United States dollar (2014)  |
Number of employees | 19,000 |
| Divisions |
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| Website | exelisinc |
| Footnotes / references [1] | |
Exelis Inc., was a global aerospace, defense, information and services company[2] created in October 2011 as a result of the spinoff ofITT Corporation's defense business into an independent, publicly traded company.[3] The company was headquartered inTysons Corner, Virginia, USA and was led by CEO and President David F. Melcher.The Washington Post highlighted Exelis as a top company in theWashington, D.C. region in 2011.[4] It was acquired by theHarris Corporation for $4.75 billion in 2015.
For more detailed company history prior to October 31, 2011, seeITT Corporation
Exelis Inc. was originally the Defense division ofITT Corporation, alongside its Industrial Process & Flow Control division and Water & Waste Water division.ITT was founded as the small communications companyPuerto Rico Telephone Company by brothersSosthenes andHernan Behn. Through a series of business and patent acquisitions, the company grew and was renamed International Telephone and Telegraph in 1920.[5]ITT continued to grow before appointingHarold Geneen as CEO in 1959. Until his retirement from the position in 1977, Geneen was responsible for growing the company from a medium-sized business earning $765 million in 1961 to an international conglomerate making $17 billion in sales in 1970. The company acquired more than 350 companies during Geneen's tenure; at one point the acquisition rate reached one deal per week. Ownership extended over such notable companies asContinental Baking, maker ofWonder Bread and theTwinkie,Sheraton Hotels andAvis Rent-A-Car.[5] For a brief period in the mid-1960s, ITT was in talks to acquire theABC television and radio networks in the US, but that deal fell through under regulatory scrutiny.
Following Geneen's retirement,ITT went through a restructuring phase under CEORand Araskog and was split into three companies in 1995:ITT Corporation (formerly ITT Industries), ITT Sheraton, andThe Hartford, an insurance company.[5]
On January 12, 2011, the ITT Corporation Board of Directors approved a plan to split the firm. On October 31, 2011, ITT Corporation spun off its defense and water technology businesses to form three separate, publicly traded companies:[5]
From the spin-off to Nov. 1, 2013, Exelis was known asITT Exelis to help ease the transition of the company's brand.[6] Exelis employed approximately 19,000 people and generated $5.5 billion in sales in 2012.[2]
On February 13, 2013, Exelis announced that it would be closing itsWest Springfield manufacturing plant and laying off 200 employees after citing expected cuts in U.S. defense spending.[7]
In February 2015, Exelis announced that plans had been approved for the sale of the company through a cash/stock purchase to competitorHarris Corporation. The purchase price of 4.75 billion dollars was reported as being one of the highest such defense company purchases, since the Lockheed/Martin merger. When finalized in June 2015, the purchase was expected to make Harris/Exelis one of the top 10 defense contractors in the United States.[8][9]
Exelis had six businesses that specialized in different technologies and services.
Located inSalt Lake City, Utah the Exelis Aerostructures business was a designer and manufacturer of lightweight composite aerospace structures, subassemblies and components.
Major Products:
Exelis Aerostructures was a subcontractor for theBoeing 7-series family of aircraft, including composite air-frame substructures for the787 Dreamliner, theAirbus A380 aircraft as well as theSikorsky S-76 helicopter. For defense programs, they provided complete structural assemblies, flight critical components as well as primary and secondary structural elements for platforms such as theLockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, theSikorsky CH-53K King Stallion Heavy Lift Helicopter, theBoeing C-17 Globemaster III and theLockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM).[10] Exelis also produced the Bear Claw line of down-hole drillable plugs used inoil and gas well completions.[11]
Headquartered inClifton, New Jersey, with a major division in Salt Lake City, Utah, the electronics systems division of the company offered a variety of electronic warfare and surveillance technologies, including air traffic control technology for both military and domestic use, radar and sonar systems, antennas and signal-jamming devices to disarmimprovised explosive devices (IED).
Major Products:
With facilities located in Clifton, New Jersey andRochester, New York, the geospatial systems division manufactured and provided GPS technology (Clifton), surveillance systems (Rochester) and data encryption services, as well asremote sensing and navigation technology. The company also included facilities in Ft. Wayne that designed and manufactured instruments for weather tracking systems.
Major Products and Solutions:
The information systems division was headquartered inHerndon, Virginia. The division specialized in creating secure information and electronics systems for specific and often challenging environments, including defense and intelligence missions, the Census Bureau, homeland security, air traffic control and space missions.
Headquartered inColorado Springs, Colorado, Mission Systems provided facilities, engineering, logistics and security support for U.S. military bases domestically and abroad.
Located inFt. Wayne, Indiana andRoanoke, Virginia, Exelis Night Vision & Communications Solutions (NVCS)[13] provided products and services for secure voice and data communications, battlefield situational awareness, and night vision systems in the global defense, security, and battlefield management sectors.
Exelis Action Corps was the company's volunteer-service program designed to create large-scale, team and individual volunteer activities and projects to support and engage service members, veterans and their families in local communities. Activities ranged from providing interviewing coaching to a military service member, to painting a house for a disabled veteran, to tutoring the children of a service member serving abroad.
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Customers included:
The company also had clients in more than 50 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, as well as Australia.[17]
