Matra BAe Dynamics [SEP] inception
Matra BAe Dynamics
Matra BAe Dynamics was formed in August 1996 by merger of half the missile business of Matra Defense of France and BAe Dynamics (a division of British Aerospace) of the UK and was Europe's largest manufacturer of missiles and UAVs.
British Aerospace had previously sought to merge its missile business with Thomson-CSF, the companies announced their plan to create a new combined company called Eurodynamics in 1989. However, after more than a year of monopoly investigations the deal collapsed.
The formation of Matra BAe
merged their missile activities to form Matra BAe Dynamics (MBD). Matra BAe Dynamics represented half of Matra Hautes Technologies' missile business; the other half was Matra Missiles, which became Aérospatiale-Matra Missiles (AMM). Then, Matra group merged with Aérospatiale in 1999. In 2000, Aérospatiale-Matra became part of EADS. 
In 1998, GEC-Marconi Radar and Defence Systems and combined their missile and radar activities to form Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS). In 1999 GEC-Marconi (renamed Marconi Electronic