ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the US president and CEO of Martin Marietta, Norman Augustine. He merged Martin Marietta with Lockheed and made them as the biggest defense contractors. Martin Marietta and Lockheed brought to the merger a range of production specialties and complementary skills. Martin Marietta and Lockheed both sold information services to federal, state, and local governments in transportation, traffic violations, law enforcement, and medical care. Augustine tried to expand further by buying Northrop Grumman, the troubled Long Island combat aircraft manufacturer. Grumman, however, rejected Martin Marietta and accepted a more favorable bid from Northrop Corporation. But even as Augustine's courtship of Grumman unraveled in 1994, Lockheed chairman and CEO Daniel Tellep approached with an offer of a more rewarding relationship. Hollywood gave Grumman's F-14 fighter plane the starring role in the movie TopGun, planting among the public a romantic image of derring-do. The chapter also discusses other defense-industry mergers.
