Technology: Sell-Off Will Allow Company to Focus On Its Commercial Projects
San Diego-based Maxwell Technologies, Inc. is leaving the defense business to concentrate its energy on commercial products.
The company announced last week it had signed letters of intent to sell its Systems Division to two prospective buyers in separate transactions.
A Maxwell spokesman would not name the companies lined up to buy the businesses, saying at this point the buyers wanted to be anonymous.
The names will be released after the buyers conduct due diligence on the purchases and the transactions are finalized, said spokesman Michael Sund. The transactions are expected to be complete within 60 days.
“Over the past year, we have reshaped Maxwell to focus on our commercial businesses, which will continue to demand considerable attention and investment,” Maxwell President and CEO Carl Eibl said in a prepared statement.
Sund said the sale will transfer 220 Systems Division employees. Those employees work in five Maxwell defense business units: advanced systems; contract research and development; electronics technology; high-power microwave and pulsed power; and the simulator business unit. The latter uses electricity to mimic the electromagnetic pulse emitted by nuclear blasts.
Currently Maxwell has 1,100 employees worldwide, with 650 of them in San Diego, Sund said. With the sale, Maxwell will end up with approximately 900 employees and 500 in San Diego, he said.
Maxwell is in a lot of businesses for a company of its size, said Sund. It produces electronic, computer and power products for the telecom, e-commerce, consumer electronics, transportation, energy, space, defense, medical products and bioprocessing industries.
