Boeing - McDonnell Douglas Merger

[flateric]

Have found a paper of how it was, quite interesting compressed info
http://economics.illinoisstate.edu/dloomis/eco320/downloads/papers/steve.PDF

 

[Stargazer]

No longer available, unfortunately... Got a copy of it?

 

[flateric]

fixed link. check now

more on subject
http://www.nera.com/extImage/Boeing%20McDonnell%20Douglas%20Merger.pdf

 

[Stargazer]

Thanks!!

 

[Triton]

Does anyone know why the merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas in April 1997 didn't create Boeing McDonnell Douglas rather than Boeing with the Douglas Aircraft Company logo?

 

[Stargazer]

Also note that the merger of Lockheed and General Dynamics never produced a "Lockheed General Dynamics", nor did the merger of Northrop Grumman with Teledyne Ryan produce a "Northrop Grumman Teledyne Ryan"... A matter of length, I'd say. Two words is long enough!

 

[Triton]

As far as I know, Boeing purchased all the assets of McDonnell Douglas. While Lockheed purchased the Fort Worth Division of General Dynamics in 1993, it did not purchase all of the assets of General Dynamics and it still remains as a company. The same goes for Boeing's acquisition of Rockwell Aerospace and Defense Units in 1996.

 

[Jemiba]

Such mergers are seldom an affair between two equivalent partners, but in most cases a takeover of
a smaller one by a bigger one. And then it's just a question of marketing/public relations, if keeping
both names is regarded as useful by the holder of the financial majority.
And in 1997 MDD wasn't in a favourite state financially...

 

[Steve Pace]

When Boeing bought the North American Aviation division of Rockwell International it became Boeing North American. But it may have changed since then. -SP

 

[Stargazer]

When Boeing bought the North American Aviation division of Rockwell International it became Boeing North American. But it may have changed since then. -SP

Do you have evidence of this? I never saw a single logo or advertisement saying "Boeing North American" anywhere... :

 

[GeorgeA]

Well yes it did, although Boeing used the term to refer to the former Rockwell operations rather than the company as a whole. After the McDonnell Douglas acquisition that branding fell into disuse.

Of course it might have been one of our august SPF members who wrote of the merger, "it was a McDonnell-Douglas takeover of Boeing using Boeing's money" in recognition of the fact that McDonnell Douglas figures were now major shareholders in Boeing, such as McDonnell the Younger and Harry Rockzero. Luckily they were put to pasture before they did to Boeing what they had done to McDonnell Douglas.

 

[JFC Fuller]

Do you have evidence of this? I never saw a single logo or advertisement saying "Boeing North American" anywhere... :

There are references all over the place but the best summary comes from the retirement plan:

"Effective December 6, 1996, The Boeing Company (Boeing) purchased the Aerospace and Defense Operations of
Rockwell International Corporation and renamed the new company Boeing North American, Inc. (BNA), a subsidiary
of The Boeing Company. Effective January 1, 2000, BNA merged into The Boeing Company, and Plan sponsorship
was transferred to The Boeing Company."

http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/empinfo/benefits/pension/spd/spd_119.pdf

At the time Rockwell International owned Rocketdyne, which Boeing sold to United Technologies Corp who has itself just sold that unit to GenCorp in order to help fund its Goodrich acquisition.

Boeing also built a monument to the Autonetics Division: http://www.profimedia.rs/fotografie/boeing-monument-unveiled/0077777490/

 

[Stargazer]

So there WAS a "Boeing North American" but it was only a division and lasted as such a mere four years... Thanks for the quote!

 

[sferrin]

Makes me sad that the greats are gone. North American, Convair, McDonnell Douglas, Republic, . . .

 

[Stargazer]

Makes me sad that the greats are gone. North American, Convair, McDonnell Douglas, Republic, . . .

... and Vought. Yeah. Sad indeed.

I remember, at the Paris Air Show in 1993, telling a Vought exec how glad I was that the name was back in the aircraft manufacturing business, and he seemed so happy. At that time the market had not yet been reduced to only three big names as we basically have now (Bell and Sikorsky not included of course).

 

[Triton]

I understand that Boeing wanted to sell McDonnell Douglas' civilian helicopter operations to Bell before the idea was nixed by Federal regulators. Thus MD Helicopters was born.

 

[JFC Fuller]

I understand that Boeing wanted to sell McDonnell Douglas' civilian helicopter operations to Bell before the idea was nixed by Federal regulators. Thus MD Helicopters was born.

Yes, around 1997 the Federal Trade Commission (and Pentagon) started to get worried about the loss of competition in the aerospace and defence market so the Boeing plan to sell the MD Civil Helicopters business to Bell was blocked (It instead became a subsidiary of RDM in the Netherlands). Most famously though, the FTC blocked a planned purchase of Northrop Grumman (Northrop and Grumman merged in 1994) by Lockheed for $11.6 billion in 1997/8.

http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/press_releases/1998/212681.htm