spacetoday.net: Canada blocks MDA sale

Posted: Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 9:57 AM ET (1357 GMT)
The Canadian government has rejected, for the time being, the planned sale of the space division of a Canadian company to an American firm. Industry Minister Jim Prentice issued a letter this week to Alliant Techsystems (ATK), a US aerospace and defense company, saying that ATK's proposed purchase of the space division of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) was not "likely to be of net benefit to Canada". The letter was dated April 8, but its existence was not announced by the ministry until Thursday morning. MDA announced in January it was selling its space business to ATK for $1.3 billion, a deal that requires regulatory approval by the Canadian government. The deal has met with some opposition in Canada, with some people concerned about selling the nation's leading space hardware company to a foreign entity. The deal also includes MDA's RADARSAT-2 radar imaging satellite, and some Canadians have also worried that data from the satellite, funded by the Canadian government, might be restricted by its new American owners or the US government. ATK has 30 days to respond to the letter and provide additional reasons why the deal should go through, or to restructure the deal to address government concerns. The Canadian government has never rejected the sale of a company to a foreign entity since the current legislation governing such sales went into effect in 1989.