Mercury Systems to boost expertise in avionics, trusted computing with acquisition of Physical Optics Corp.

ANDOVER, Mass. – Executives of Mercury Systems Inc. in Andover, Mass., are boosting their company's expertise in avionics, electronic warfare (EW) and trusted computing with their acquisition of Physical Optics Corp. in Torrance, Calif.

Mercury officials have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Physical Optics, a designer of advanced technologies primarily focused on avionics and mission subsystems for defense applications.

Mercury Systems will acquire POC for an all-cash purchase price of $310 million. Physical Optics is expected to generate revenue of over $120 million for its fiscal year ending 31 Dec. 2020.

Founded in 1985, Physical Optics employs about 350 people, including more than 160 engineers, and holds more than 160 patents worldwide, covering 60 technologies. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of January.

Related: Mercury acquisition capitalizes on RF, cyber, and anti-tamper technologies

"The acquisition of Physical Optics adds important capabilities on new and existing airborne programs in the platform and mission management market," says Mark Aslett, Mercury's president and CEO. "The combination of Mercury's safety-certifiable and secure avionics processing solutions with Physical Optics's deep portfolio of data storage, transfer, and encryption technologies will enable us to deliver more complete, pre-integrated avionics subsystems to our customers."

Physical Optics supports mission-critical programs with common-use products spanning data transfer systems, flight data recorders, mission computers, high-definition data and video recorders, and advanced encryption devices.

For more information contact Physical Optics online at www.poc.com, or Mercury Systems at www.mrcy.com.