Raytheon Co. will cut more than 8 percent of its work force and shut 20 defense facilities as it tries to wring more profit from recently acquired companies and boost its engineering business.
Lexington-based Raytheon, the world’s largest aerospace and defense company after Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., said it will cut 8,700 defense workers and 1,000 engineering employees. Besides factories, dozens of defense marketing and engineering offices will be shut.
After spending $12.45 billion last year to buy defense businesses from Texas Instruments Inc. and General Motors Corp.’s Hughes unit, Raytheon Chairman Dennis Picard is under pressure from investors to boost profits by slashing costs and increasing its share of weapons contracts.
“We just want assurances,” said Keith Patriquin, an analyst at Boston’s Loomis, Sayles & Co. “The company has fallen short of expectations a couple of times in the past year and a half.”
