(Bloomberg) -- Elliott Investment Management, which has a history of bidding for companies in the US defense sector, has bought a sizable stake in Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc.
The Florida-based hedge fund said Monday it owned a 3.7% of Aerojet. While the investment is a passive one for now, the investment firm has made acquisitions of companies of a similar size in the sector. Last year it bought Cubic Corp, along with Veritas Capital while it also had unsuccessful takeover bid for Mercury Systems Inc.
Aerojet was the subject of an usual proxy fight earlier this year when its former chairman, Warren Lichtenstein, tried to take control of the board of the last independent US rocket-engine maker. Lichtenstein eventually lost the fight that pitted him against the company’s Chief Executive Officer Eileen Drake.
The bitter personal feud between Drake, a retired US Army helicopter pilot, and Lichtenstein, an activist himself, played out in a flurry of court filings. It burst into public view and left directors deadlocked after US antitrust regulators moved to block Lockheed Martin Corp.’s takeover of Aerojet.
Elliott also disclosed it had exited its investment in Twitter Inc., which is in the midst of a protracted fight with Elon Musk about his plans to potentially acquire the social media company.
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