NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Sept. 13, 2004--BAE Systems PLC (BBB/Stable/A-2) recently announced that it will be acquiring, through its U.S. subsidiary, the U.S. firm DigitalNet Holdings Inc., the parent of DigitalNet Inc. (B+/Watch Pos/--), for approximately $500 million cash and $94 million of assumed debt. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said its ratings and outlook on the British defense contractor are not affected by the announcement. The acquisition will be funded with existing resources (£1.5 billion of cash and investments and £2 billion of unused credit facilities as of June 30, 2004) and fits well with BAE's strategy to grow its North American operations, especially sales to the U.S. government. DigitalNet provides IT, systems engineering, integration, and support to
