Industrial Strength

Boeing’s Pursuit of Spirit Aero Has to Overcome Deal-Hesitant Pentagon

Carving out the Airbus parts of Spirit is the biggest challenge for a Boeing takeover but the Defense Department has its own interests to protect. 

Spirit also does work for military jets, including Northrop’s B-21 bomber. The Defense Department will have a say over any potential acquisition of the company. 

Source: US Air Force/AP

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Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. is both far too dependent on Boeing Co. to continue as a standalone public company and not dependent enough on the planemaker to make acquisition talks clear-cut. More than two months after Boeing confirmed it’s seeking to repurchase the Spirit airplane structures business it spun off in 2005, no deal has been announced — in large part because Spirit has diversified in the intervening two decades, adding new customers with their own interests to protect.