Velocity One Merging With EMCORE

By Amit Chowdhry • Nov 11, 2024

Velocity One – a newly formed aerospace manufacturing holding company – announced it has signed a merger agreement with EMCORE Corporation, a provider of inertial navigation solutions to the aerospace and defense industry. Under this deal, EMCORE will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Velocity One.

The EMCORE board of directors unanimously approved the purchase price of $3.10 per share in cash, backed by Charlesbank Capital Partners, a private investment firm with over $22 billion in assets.

Velocity One will now have three industry leaders operating under its wing. Along with EMCORE, it will comprise Cartridge Actuated Devices, a 50-year veteran designer and manufacturer of energetic devices, and Aerosphere Power, a manufacturer of power system solutions for commercial and military aerospace, military ground vehicles, and UAV applications.

Skyway Capital Markets and Launch Point Partners are acting as buyside financial advisors to Velocity One. Foley & Lardner is serving as legal counsel to Velocity One.

Craig-Hallum Capital Group is EMCORE’s exclusive financial advisor, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman is its legal counsel.

KEY QUOTES:

“We are excited to bring our playbook to EMCORE, as well as decades of experience operating aerospace and defense manufacturing and engineering businesses and optimizing their efficiency and profitability. EMCORE has excellent technology and offers a large product portfolio. We believe this, combined with our industry experience and shared customer portfolio, puts EMCORE on a new trajectory for growth. With Charlesbank’s investment, EMCORE, CAD, and Aerosphere Power’s businesses can align and be poised for growth while focusing on our collective core philosophies.”

  • John Borduin, CEO of Velocity One

“We see a tremendous opportunity to bring together three leading aerospace manufacturing businesses to create a compelling new player in the market, and EMCORE’s highly engineered proprietary products will be key to driving the platform’s overall success. Velocity One’s talented and motivated management team has the industry expertise, entrepreneurial talent, and reputation necessary to drive meaningful growth at scale, and we remain excited to partner closely with them to execute our shared vision for the future of each business.”

  • Brandon White, Managing Director at Charlesbank

“This merger underscores our commitment to our domestic and international customer base, including strengthening relationships with and generating synergies across a range of high-priority U.S. and NATO defense programs and industrial partners served by all three companies. By combining our strengths with those of Velocity One, we believe EMCORE will be better positioned and resourced to address global customers’ evolving needs and deliver superior solutions. We look forward to the future as part of the Velocity One team.”

  • Matt Vargas, CEO of EMCORE