announced its intention to acquire Tracor in April 1998 and to merge it with a North American subsidiary. Following a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) (to ensure there were no national security implications) GEC completed the transaction in June 1998. The relatively quick decision, particularly for such an important defense contractor, was due to the relationship which already existed between GEC and the Defense Department. A condition of the purchase was that GEC must appoint a "proxy board". This is a mechanism where the company is run locally by American managers and was employed in this case due to the many sensitive projects which Tracor was involved in. The General Electric Company plc was a British company, not affiliated with the similarly named company which is based in the United States. It has since been renamed to Marconi plc. The acquisition was as a major expansion of GEC's defence division, GEC-Marconi (later Marconi Electronic Systems), however seven months later GEC announced the demerger of Marconi Electronic Systems (including the North American defence businesses) which would then merge with British Aerospace (BAe) to form BAE Systems. This process was completed on November 30, 1999. Commentators have described Tracor as the jewel in crown of GEC-Marconi North America. BAE Systems In the new company GEC's North American defense businesses were merged with BAe's U.S. interests to form BAE Systems North America. In the years since, BAE Systems has pursued growth in America more aggressively than any other area in order to take advantage of the large U.S. procurement and research budgets. Today BAE Systems Inc. (of which Tracor is a large part) is the largest foreign player in the U.S. defense market. Organization Tracor Information Systems Tracor Aerospace Tracor Systems Technologies Tracor Instruments Tracor Applied Sciences References Handbook of Texas Online "TRACOR," https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dnt03 (accessed February 24, 2006) BAE Systems subsidiaries and divisions General Electric Company American companies established in 1954