Northrop Grumman Corp. to combine units to cut costs

LOS ANGELES (Bloomberg) — Northrop Grumman Corp., the world's largest warship builder, said it will combine seven units into five to lower costs.

The Integrated Systems group will be combined with Space Technology to form a new Aerospace Systems unit, led by Gary Ervin, the Los Angeles-based company said Wednesday in a statement. The Information Technology and Mission Systems groups will be combined as Information Systems, led by Linda Mills.

The company has more than 1,000 employees in Utah.

Northrop, the only builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers for the U.S. Navy, had already streamlined its shipbuilding business by combining its Newport News and Ship Systems units in January 2008. Each of the two new groups announced, Aerospace and Information, will have annual sales of about $10 billion, the statement said. Northrop had total sales of $32 billion in 2007 and is estimated to have had 2008 revenue of $33.6 billion, according to the average prediction of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.