Investment firm Francisco Partners said this week it has agreed to acquire Raytheon Technologies' Forcepoint cybersecurity business.
Forcepoint was created just over five years ago through a deal with private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners.
But Raytheon has long been signaling that the company would not be part of the merged business. Last year, Tom Kennedy, then the chief executive of Raytheon, said Forcepoint would not a be a "long-term part of the [Raytheon Technologies] portfolio."
"They're doing some good things . . . and I think we'll go to market at the right time, relatively speaking, from a position of strength," he said.
Francisco Partners, which specializes in technology and technology-enabled businesses, said it would work with the management team to help Forcepoint realize its full potential.
Meanwhile, during a call with analysts today, Greg Hayes, Raytheon Technologies' CEO, said the company continues to focus on cutting costs as its commercial aerospace business faces challenges as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Hayes said the company expects to cut about 20% of its commercial aerospace workforce headcount -- or 15,000 people -- and about 4,000 contractors. Another 1,000 jobs are being eliminated as a result of the Raytheon Technologies merger, bringing the total reductions to about 20,000 people.
However, Hayes said the company's defense businesses are hiring "in targeted areas," primarily engineering.
Raytheon is seeking other ways to cut costs, including by accelerating the company's transition from expensive office space to lower-cost space and by reducing its total facility square footage. The company now has about 31 million square feet of space, according to Hayes, who added he now envisions a reduction in square footage of 20% to 25%. The company will start with its leased facilities, he added.
"For these last six months as I've toured the country and visited facilities where we've got literally a handful of folks working there . . . it became very apparent we don't need all this space," Hayes said.