Brooke Sutherland, Columnist

Boeing Goes on the Defensive With Embraer Deal

It does a 180-degree turn on smaller jets.

July 5, 2018 at 3:36 PM UTC

Brooke Sutherland is Bloomberg News' Boston bureau chief and writes the Industrial Strength Newsletter. She was previously a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies and an M&A reporter for Bloomberg News.

Let’s get small.
Photographer: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images

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Boeing Co. has learned the value of the axiom “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

The $194 billion company on Thursday announced preliminary terms for a commercial aircraft joint venture with Brazilian regional-jet maker Embraer SA. Boeing bills the partnership as an “evolution” of years of collaboration between the companies on research and the KC-390 military cargo plane. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Boeing decided to more formally crystalize the companies’ relationship after rival Airbus SE took a majority stake in Bombardier Inc.’s C-series program and put a spotlight on the regional-jet hole in Boeing’s lineup.