Airbus, Thales Alenia and Leonardo, three giants in terms of satellite manufacture, are in “preliminary talks” to merge their operations—rumors of a potential merger have been reported for some months—the talks would not involve the Airbus aircraft manufacturing business.
French newspaper La Tribune reports that the trio are also in discussion with the European Union’s monopoly and anti-trust regulators about the possible combination of their satellite divisions.
The source said the companies have begun discussions with EU competition authorities in what is called a “pre-notification phase,” and that this marked a very early process that would not be expected to lead to any material outcome until “well into next year.”
A second source said the national governments who would be involved in this – France and Italy – were broadly aligned over the project, and that the European Commission, which opposed previous attempts to forge a single satellite maker, had the single most decisive say on whether the consolidation efforts would succeed.
In February, the CEO of Airbus had said he would be happy if satellite merger talks with Thales and Leonardo led to a venture like the MBDA European missile project, and he hoped EU antitrust regulators will take a looser stance than in the past.
