Northrop to buy Orbital ATK for $7.8 B in cash, page-4

I absolutely agree. In the long run they need a large partner to stay ahead in the technology race.

As well as:

On 6/3 I wrote:
"A large order backlog creates a nice timing for a spin-off. Defense companies headed north since the election of Trump and are priced for perfection. They must be eager to buy solid revenues & technology. Besides, Ben Greene and Fred Bart have reached a respectable age and might want to focus their attention to the other side of the business [space]".


And management also faces the experation of 5,5 million options. Excercise price 3,00, exercisable on or before 31 januari 2019, fully paid. They have to cough up 17,5 million to collect the shares. This is also a clear incentive to sell the defense business.