OceanSound Partners, a growth-oriented private equity firm that invests in technology and technology-enabled services businesses serving government and highly-regulated enterprise end-markets, announced the completion of its acquisition of Antenna Research Associates, Inc. (ARA), a provider of integrated RF and advanced communications products to the aerospace and defense (A&D) end-markets. ARA’s management team, led by CEO Logen Thiran, will continue in their operational roles and as investors in the company. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
ARA enables the U.S. Department of Defense and other national security-focused customers to modernize legacy platforms and deploy next-generation systems that enhance situational awareness, threat detection and advanced communication capabilities. ARA leverages its over 60-year heritage in electromagnetic spectrum expertise, combined with scaled innovation, engineering, manufacturing and testing infrastructure to design, develop, and deploy advanced antennas and other mission-critical RF solutions across several use cases, including communications, tactical RF and radar-critical subsystems. ARA’s core differentiation lies in its ability to leverage active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology applied in size-, weight-, power- and cost-constrained applications.
“ARA’s comprehensive RF solutions portfolio is well positioned to address critical U.S. Department of Defense priorities such as the modernization of legacy technology systems and development of lower-cost and high performance unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and counter UAS solutions to better manage threats from U.S. adversaries,” said Joe Benavides, managing partner of OceanSound. “Since its founding in 1963, ARA has developed a portfolio of over 50 patents used in the delivery of differentiated RF systems and, more recently, innovative products leveraging small form-factor AESA technology to become a leading provider of RF solutions to the A&D market. ARA’s ability to miniaturize their products enables the development of small, low-cost, higher volume platforms such as drones, low earth orbit satellites, man portable communications and other mobile A&D platforms.”
“We are at an important inflection point in ARA’s development and are thrilled to partner with OceanSound, whose expertise in the A&D technology market will be invaluable, to accelerate ARA’s growth and strategic transformation primarily focused on making complimentary investments in and acquisitions of technology solutions,” said Thiran. “As the defense industry continues to demand advanced, low-cost technologies, our team is focused on building sustainable partnerships with customers to develop and deploy cost competitive, high performance technologies to address the rapidly evolving requirements of the Department of Defense. OceanSound’s partnership approach will enable us to continue fielding innovative solutions leveraging the RF spectrum to better serve the needs of the market.”
“We are excited to partner with Logen and the current management team who have deliberately transformed ARA through targeted acquisitions of technology capabilities and then cross-selling the resulting differentiated solutions portfolio to higher value A&D programs,” said Jeff Kelly, partner at OceanSound. “ARA’s long history of innovation and its reputation as a trusted technology partner to A&D customers positions the company well to meet the increasing demand to modernize our country’s defense posture. We will work closely with ARA’s management team to enhance the company’s RF capabilities and customer relationships, that, together with additional strategic acquisitions, will enable ARA to deliver a more complete portfolio of advanced technologies to the A&D market.”