ITT Industries To Acquire Kodak RSS Business

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Feb. 9 -- ITT Industries Inc., of White Plains, N.Y., announced it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Eastman Kodak Co.'s Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) business for $725 million. The transaction is subject to US regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

Henry Driesse, president of ITT's Industries Defense Electronics and Services unit, said ITT will create within that unit a new Space Systems Division, to be based at RSS in Rochester, N.Y. The Space Systems Division will develop and integrate space-based sensors and image information processing services for science, government and commercial applications.

RSS, which has about 1800 employees, makes high-resolution optical and electro-optical imaging components, systems and payloads for ground- and space-based telescopes, remote sensing satellites and other space-based platforms, as well as ground, air and space-based image collection and processing products and services. Its customers include the US Department of Defense, science laboratories, other government agencies and commercial customers such as Space Imaging and DigitalGlobe.

"The combination of the two businesses will create a full-spectrum satellite payload provider with the latest visible and infrared satellite imaging technology in the $6 billion remote sensing market," Driesse said. "We've identified a number of new programs where we will be better positioned to compete, including the next generation weather satellites, high-resolution imagery, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and small satellite applications for scientific and intelligence missions. Our combined expertise in the multi-spectral/hyperspectral, LIDAR and radar systems ensure that we will have technology leadership well into the future."

ITT's space businesses provide a variety of products and services, including infrared meteorological sensors and navigational payloads, as well as ground-station satellite control services and space launch services. ITT has provided sensors for every one of the NOAA operational weather satellites since 1978, and is currently under contract to maintain, sustain and modernize systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Network for interplanetary missions.

For more information, visit: www.itt.com