Loral Corporation was a small Bronx defense contractor on the verge of bankruptcy when in 1972 it was acquired by Bernard Schwartz, who over the course of the next two decades built it into a major player in the global aerospace and defense industry, acquiring sixteen other defense and aerospace companies. In 1996 Loral sold its defense electronics and system integration businesses to Lockheed Martin; its remaining units became became Loral Space & Communications. (The following year, several of those former Loral units were sold by Lockheed Martin to become the core of L-3 Communications.)
1991. With Qualcomm, Loral begins the Globalstar project, and at the peak owns a 42% share in the company.
1994. Loral acquires IBM Federal Systems Company, which becomes Loral Federal Systems.
May 5, 1995. Loral acquires Paramax, the defense unit of Unisys Corp., for $862m in cash.
January 8, 1996. Lockheed Martin acquires the defense electronics and system integration businesses of Loral Corp. for $9.1 billion. Loral Corp. becomes Loral Space & Communications.
Other acquisitions
Fairchild-Weston
LTV Missiles
Solartron
Other past units
Loral Aeronutronic (Rancho Santa Margarita, California)
Loral Command Control Systems
Loral Conic (San Diego, California)
Loral Instrumentation (San Diego)
Loral/Liris
Loral Rolm Computer Systems (San José, California)
Loral Space Information Systems
Loral Space & Range Systems (Sunnyvale, California)
Loral had to plan ahead, and the substantial liquidated damages for which it would be liable, plus the threat of default, were genuine possibilities.
As Loral was producing a highly sophisticated item of military machinery requiring parts made to the strictest engineering standards, it would be unreasonable to hold that Loral should have gone to other vendors, with whom it was either unfamiliar or dissatisfied, to procure the needed parts.
Loral's reason — for waiting until that time — is that it feared another stoppage of deliveries which would again put it in an untenable situation.
Loral is also developing the Global Transportation Network, which is intended to allow U.S. Transportation Command track its worldwide dispatch and delivery of supplies, and a $500 million global electronic mail system called the Defense Message System.
Loral owns 33 percent of Space Systems/Loral, which earns roughly $1 billion a year designing and building communications satellites for countries such as Japan and the Philippines.
Loral is also spearheading the development of CyberStar, a three-satellite communication network designed to provide companies with two-way, high-capacity worldwide data links via 26-inch antennas by 1999.
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