Northrop Buys Orbital ATK, and All of Space Launch Is Watching

It's official now. Less than three months after Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) announced that it will be buying Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA) for $7.8 billion in cash, Orbital ATK shareholders voted last week to approve the transaction.

The result: Regulators permitting, this deal is headed for a closing in the first half of 2018, after which Orbital ATK will disappear, Northrop Grumman get bigger -- and a new space star will be born.

With operations in both the military munitions market and in space launch, Orbital ATK is sort of a strange beast. More than half the company's revenue, however, come from its space business -- and that's the one I want to talk about today.

Source: Fool.com