The defense sector, so far, has been resilient throughout the chaos of the present economy. One example: Lockheed Martin reported earnings Thursday that featured an increase in overall revenue and profits in 2008. Its Information Systems & Global Services (IS&GS) group posted growth as well.
For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, IS&GS (2008 VARBusiness 500 rank 7) reported $3.3 billion in sales, compared with $2.8 billion in the year prior period. For the year, the division reported $11.6 billion in sales, up from $10.2 billion in 2007.
Lockheed is the nation's biggest defense contractor, and it operates four divisions. In addition to IS&GS, the other sectors are Electronics Systems, Aeronautics and Space Systems. Among those, IS&GS and Electronics posted gains from last year.
One of the principal drivers for the uptick in Information Systems was increased sales in enterprise solutions and services activities. Operating profit increased to $307 million from $275 million in the fourth quarter due to higher volume on information technology programs and a benefit from a contract restructuring during the first quarter of 2008. Operating profit year over year increased 13 percent.
Overall, Lockheed Martin reported that full year sales rose two percent, to $42.7 billion, and fourth quarter net sales rose 3 percent from $10.8 billion to $11.1 billion. Fourth quarter net earnings were up 3 percent to $823 million; full year net earnings were up 6 percent to $3.2 billion.
|
Five Companies That Dropped The Ball This Week For the week ending Feb. 10, CRN looks at five companies that were either asleep at the wheel or just didn't make good decisions. |
|
Five Companies That Came To Win This Week For the week ending Feb. 10, CRN looks at five companies that brought their 'A' game and made moves to beat out competitors |
|
10 Challenges That HP Wants Partners To Tackle Right Now CRN speaks with HP's business unit chiefs to get a sense of where they'd like partners to focus in the coming year, as well as how CEO Meg Whitman is making a difference. |
 More
Slide Shows |
