L3 Technologies

Last updated

L3 Technologies, Inc.
FormerlyL-3 Communications Holdings
Company type Subsidiary
NYSE: LHX
Industry Aerospace, Defense
Predecessor Loral Corporation's business that was part of Lockheed Martin, Paramax Systems Corporation
FoundedFebruary 1997;27 years ago (February 1997) [1]
DefunctJune 28, 2019;4 years ago (2019-06-28)
FateMerged with Harris Corporation
Successor L3Harris Technologies
Headquarters,
United States[ citation needed ]
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Michael T. Strianese
(Chairman/C.E.O.)
Christopher E. Kubasik
(CEO and President)
Products AVCATT, ISR systems, numerous specialized components, electronics, avionics
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$9.573 billion [2]  (2017)
Increase2.svgUS$1.020 billion [2]  (2017)
Decrease2.svgUS$986 million [2]  (2017)
Total assets Increase2.svgUS$12.73 billion [2]  (2017)
Total equity Increase2.svgUS$5.15 billion [2]  (2017)
Number of employees
38,000 [3]  (2017)
Website www.l3t.com

L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training devices and services, instrumentation, aerospace, and navigation products. Its customers included the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, United States Intelligence Community, NASA, aerospace contractors, and commercial telecommunications and wireless customers. In 2019, it merged with Harris Corporation to form L3Harris Technologies. [4]

Contents

L3 was headquartered in Murray Hill, Manhattan, New York City. [5]

History

L3 was formed as L-3 Communications in 1997 to acquire certain business units from Lockheed Martin that had previously been part of Loral Corporation. These units had belonged to Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta, which had merged three years before in 1993. [6] The company was founded by (and named for) Frank Lanza and Robert LaPenta in partnership with Lehman Brothers. Lanza and LaPenta had both served as executives at Loral and Lockheed. [7]

Acquisitions

1997
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2010
2012
2015
2016
2017
2018

Business organization

As of 2017, L3 was organized under four business segments:

Management

Frank Lanza, CEO and co-founder, died on June 7, 2006. CFO Michael T. Strianese was named as interim CEO, and was later appointed Chairman, President and CEO of the company on October 23, 2006. In 2015, former Lockheed Martin executive Christopher E. Kubasik was named president and COO, with Strianese remaining as chairman and CEO. [24] On July 19, 2017, Strianese announced that he would retire as CEO on December 31, 2017, to be succeeded by Kubasik, but would remain as board chairman. [25] As of January 1, 2018, Christopher E. Kubasik became chief executive officer and president of L3 Technologies.

Naming

L3 Technologies was originally named L-3 Communications for the last initials of its founders Frank Lanza, Robert LaPenta, and Lehman Brothers. Despite the similarity in naming, there is no corporate connection between L3 Technologies, formerly known as L-3 Communications, and networking provider Level 3 Communications, whose name is often abbreviated "L3" in informal industry communication.

On December 31, 2016, the company changed its name from L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. to L3 Technologies, Inc. to better reflect the company's wider focus since its founding in 1997. The company's website changed from L-3com.com to L3T.com, but the company's NYSE ticker symbol of LLL remained the same. [26]

Products

Controversies

Federal contract suspension

In 2010, it was announced that L3's Special Support Programs Division had been suspended by the United States Air Force from doing any contract work for the US federal government. A US Department of Defense investigation had reportedly found that the company had, "used a highly sensitive government computer network to collect competitive business information for its own use." A US federal criminal investigation [29] ended the temporary suspension on July 27, 2010.

Counterfeit parts

On November 4, 2010, L3 issued a part purge notification to prevent future use of Chinese counterfeit parts, but did not notify its customers whose display systems suffered from much higher than expected failure rates. [30]

EOTech defective holographic sights lawsuit

In 2015, L3 Technologies agreed to pay $25.6 million to settle a lawsuit with the U.S. Government. L3 was accused of knowingly providing the U.S. military with optics that failed in extreme temperatures and humid weather conditions. These sights were provided to infantry and special operations forces operating in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as civilians and law enforcement. [31]

The civil fraud lawsuit was filed by Preet Bharara, in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit alleged L3 officials have known since 2006 that the holographic sights being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan failed to perform as advertised in extreme temperature ranges. The lawsuit alleges that the FBI independently discovered the thermal drift defect, where the point-of-aim would shift when the sights were exposed to temperature extremes, [31] in March 2015 and presented EOTech with "the very same findings that the company had documented internally for years. Shortly thereafter, EOTech finally disclosed the thermal drift defect to the DoD." According to court documents, EOTech had advertised that its sights performed in temperatures ranging from -40 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and in humid conditions. [32]

See also

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