Tyco Electronics has sold off the last remaining piece of the original M/A-COM components and sub-systems group this week and only retains the land mobile radio group. Autoliv of Sweden has purchased the automotive sensor group for $42 million and a few months ago Cobham announced that they will purchase the military and commercial RF/microwave groups. Once the Cobham purchase is complete, they plan to sell off the commercial group. Tyco Electronics seems satisfied to retain the radio group which has the multi-billion dollar New York state public safety radio network contract and is expected to continue to grow at a rapid rate.

M/A-COM has been a pioneer in RF/microwave technology for over 50 years, and I hope that the brand name is carried on by at least one of the groups. Autoliv probably has no reason to do that but Cobham and whoever takes over the commercial group could probably benefit from the branding.

As an ex-employee, it is kind of sad to see it broken up but hopefully the heritage will live on.