Raytheon to Acquire BBN

In a convergence of two legendary Boston-area technology concerns, Waltham, MA-based defense contracting giant Raytheon (NYSE: [[ticker:RTN]]) said today it will acquire Cambridge, MA-based BBN Technologies in a deal expected to close by the end of this year. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. BBN pioneered the development of the Arpanet, the predecessor to today’s Internet, and continues to have strengths in networking, speech recognition and translation technologies, quantum cryptography and communications, and related fields. The privately held firm was acquired by Cambridge, MA-based venture firm General Catalyst and Palo Alto, CA-based Accel Partners from Verizon Communications in 2004. Raytheon said BBN will become part of its Network Centric Systems division. We’ll have more details on the acquisition in a follow-up story.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/