Little change expected immediately at Pentek Inc. in the wake of company's acquisition by Mercury Systems
UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J. – Little will change in the foreseeable future at embedded computing specialist Pentek Inc. in Upper Saddle River, N.J., in the wake of Thursday's announcement that the company has been acquired by Mercury Systems in Andover, Mass., for $65 million in cash.
"We're all excited about this new change, which will help us expand our line of world-class embedded systems products and better support our customers in their programs," says Rodger Hosking, vice president and co-founder of Pentek. "Our existing team of employees and all operations remain in place going forward."
Mercury executives announced at 9 a.m. Thursday that they had acquired Pentek Technologies LLC and Pentek Systems Inc. -- collectively known as Pentek Inc. -- subject to net working capital and net debt adjustments. Pentek employees even received hats with the Mercury logo later on Thursday. Pentek was established in 1986.
Of the Mercury acquisition of Pentek, Mercury CEO Mark Aslett says "their capabilities add scale and breadth to Mercury's existing mixed-signal product portfolio and deepen our penetration into our core radar, electronic warfare (EW), and signals intelligence markets."
Hosking says he will stay with Pentek indefinitely as he and Mercury leaders work out what his new title will be with Mercury. "I'll still be working here every day, and look forward to incorporating new ideas and practices to make us even stronger and better," Hosking says.
"The former Pentek business will be fully integrated into Mercury," explains Robert McGrail, director of corporate and investor communications at Mercury Systems. "We are a full integrator, we're not a holding company. We're always seeking to acquire companies like Pentek where we can leverage their technologies and integrate them into our solutions to provide our customers more capabilities."
Regarding the Pentek brand, "It's a little early to say, as that is part of integration planning," McGrail says. "Pentek has very strong brand recognition in line with its reputation for quality, technology, and world-class support, and we will treat the brand with the appropriate respect."
Related: Pentek Announces Immediate Availability of Higher Bandwidth Gen 3 RFSoC Solutions
Hosking says placing Pentek under the Mercury Systems banner will position Pentek better for growth over the next decade than the company could achieve independently, citing Mercury's sales structure and visibility into U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) programs as strengths that Pentek otherwise would not have.
"With Mercury behind us, we'll become a more credible supplier of critical products in larger programs," Hosking says, "and I am really optimistic about being able to push revenues past our recent levels."
Pentek specializes in ruggedized high-performance commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software-defined radio and data acquisition boards, data recording systems, and subsystems for high-end military and commercial applications.
"There is an excellent fit strategically and culturally between the two businesses," Hosking says. "Our product-focused business model will provide a diverse portfolio of building blocks enabling low-risk content expansion at the module and subsystems levels."
Mercury specializes in trusted, secure, open-architecture embedded computing processing solutions for mission-critical applications that must operate in challenging environments.
For more information contact Mercury Systems online at www.mrcy.com, or Pentek at www.pentek.com.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
