During a pair of special meetings, shareholders at both Alliance Techsystems (ATK) and Orbital Sciences (ORB) overwhelmingly approved their proposed merger. Nearly 100% of votes cast were in favor and hey, why should a rocket explosion spoil a good deal? Orbital shareholders will receive 0.449 shares of ATK common stock for each ORB share owned, effectively giving Orbital shareholders 46.2% ownership of the combined entity. Obviously, that means that ATK shareholders will control the majority. Post merger, the combined company will be called Orbital ATK (how creative) and trade on the NYSE under the ticker ‘OA’.
The marriage is set to be consummated on February 9th and immediately prior to the combination, ATK will spinoff its outdoor sports segment Vista Outdoors. The new company, which will be based in Utah, will trade on the NYSE under the ticker ‘VSTO’ and ATK shareholders as of February 2nd will receive 2 shares of VSTO for every 1 ATK share owned.
For additional information check out all of our earlier coverage of the situation.
Disclosure: Author holds no position in any stock mentioned.