The board of Italy’s Leonardo held a crucial meeting yesterday to review a tentative deal to forge a new European satellite manufacturer with its existing partner Thales and rival Airbus, people familiar with the matter said.
Barring a last-minute setback, the three companies are expected to announce as early as today that they intend to press ahead with plans to pool loss-making activities into a new venture to fend off competitors led by Elon Musk, two of the people said.
However, after more than a year of tricky talks over the balance of power, valuations, anti-trust issues and most recently a political crisis in France, there is no guarantee of an immediate sign-off and timing is not confirmed, they warned.
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