Aerospatiale Matra, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and GEC-Marconi: New Space Company Will Be Named Astrium
;Munich - "We can now announce: Astrium will be the name of the new space company that we will soon be founding," declared Philippe Camus, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the French Aerospatiale Matra (Paris), Dr. Manfred Bischoff, President and CEO of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (Dasa, Munich), and Peter Gershon, Managing Director of Marconi Electronic Systems Ltd. (London) on Friday in a common statement. ; The name Astrium emphasizes the strong commitment to space technology and supports the idea of European industrial integration. ; For the time being, however, on the German side only those space activities which do not belong to Dornier GmbH can be contributed to the trinational company. ; At the shareholders' meeting of Dornier GmbH held last Tuesday, a majority of 96.7 percent approved the merger of the Dornier space activities with the Franco-British company Matra Marconi Space (MMS). Dornier Electronic + Software GmbH, holding a share of 0.0001 percent of Dornier GmbH and represented by sole shareholder and managing director Claudius Dornier, had raised objections. The Ravensburg district court accepted an application filed by Dornier Elektronik + Software GmbH forbidding the inclusion of the Dornier activities in the new Franco-German-British space company. ; Dasa will now do everything in their power to minimize the damage that may arise for Dornier, its space business and its workforce through the delayed integration of the Dornier activities into European structures. ; Dasa deeply regrets that the wide-ranging consensus reached in European industry and politics that jobs and technological know-how in this branch can only be secured by means of cross-border mergers forming competitive and profitable companies is not fully supported by all the shareholders of Dornier GmbH.
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Aerospatiale Matra, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and GEC-Marconi: New Space Company Will Be Named Astrium
