Everett’s B/E Aerospace unaffected by sale to Rockwell Collins

EVERETT — Eliminating redundancies. Trimming headcount. Layoffs.

Call them what you want, pink slips often follow corporate mergers and acquisitions.

That won’t be the case for the several hundred people who work at B/E Aerospace in Everett.

Rockwell Collins is buying the largest supplier of aircraft cabin equipment for $6.4 billion. The deal is expected to close by spring 2017. Until then, Rockwell Collins is not saying much about any specific plans for B/E Aerospace.

While both are huge aerospace suppliers, they offer very different products. Rockwell Collins focuses on avionics, while B/E provides lavatories, seats and other aircraft interior components.

Rockwell Collins is betting that airplanes will be increasingly connected, with seats and even toilets streaming data to maintenance crews and others. The deal would allow the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based firm to integrate its monitoring and data streaming technologies into interior equipment.

“We expect minimal — if any — impacts to (B/E Aerospace) operations,” Rockwell Collins spokeswoman Pam Tvrdy said. “There might be some redundant corporate operations.”

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dcatchpole.