Frank Lanza, chairman and chief executive officer of U.S. defense contractor L-3 Communications Holdings Inc.,
has passed away at the age of 74. The savvy dealmaker, who co-founded L-3 in 1997, had a passion for his career, and was the subject
of a 2002 profile in The Deal .
"I don't play golf because I think that's for wimps," Lanza said. "An acquisition is like a tennis match to me. They're a competition, and I'm very competitive."
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Background
Lanza began his career in 1957 as an engineer with the Philco Western Development Laboratory.
- In 1959, he joined the Dalmo Victor Division of Textron where he managed the development and production of major electronic warfare programs. He was named vice president of Dalmo Victor in 1970.
- He joined Loral Space & Communications in 1972 as president of Loral Electronic Systems and served as president and chief operating officer of Loral Corp. from 1981 to 1996. That same year, Lanza became executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Corp. and president and chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin's C3I and Systems Integration Sector.
- A year after he co-founded L-3 Communications, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1998.
The Drive
Lanza, whose mother was from Brooklyn and father from Italy, had a keen eye for acquisitions.
Robert Millard, lead director of the L-3 Communications board of directors, expressed deep condolences to the Lanza family and said the board would meet today.
Comments
Re "Knight Ridder spared no expense": It's not clear what Carolyn Murphy was talking about. At the Philadelphia Inquirer, the largest of the newspapers that were sold, we covered the sale like any other important business story, and broke news of all six bidders before any other outlet. The accounts she quoted were mostly derived from Inquirer stories.