288 Aeroflex jobs on LI safe, says takeover company

The 288 Long Island jobs of Aeroflex Holding Corp. are safe, according to assurances delivered Tuesday by an executive of the company's British acquirer.

Sen. Charles Schumer said he called Robert Mullins, executive vice president, corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions at Cobham PLC, amid uncertainty over the future of Long Island jobs after the $1.46 billion merger was announced in May.

Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Mullins, who was raised in Huntington, pledged that there are no plans to cut any of the company's Long Island jobs.

"None?" Schumer asked. "None," Mullins replied, according to the account.

Schumer said Mullins told him that Cobham's goal is to expand Aeroflex, which is based in Plainview and has another location in Hauppauge. Though Mullins stopped short of committing to add jobs on Long Island, Schumer said he expressed "a lot of faith in the products made [on Long Island] and the management team."

"I'm optimistic that this could be good for Long Island," Schumer said, differentiating Cobham from companies that "slash and burn" their targets.

Schumer said he was "greatly heartened by this commitment from the company's top mergers and acquisitions executive."

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Cobham is based in Wimborne, England, but employs more than one-third of its workers in the United States, which accounts for about half of revenue.

Aeroflex, which makes radiation-hardened semiconductors for satellite communications, has 2,600 employees at 20 locations overall.

The transaction, which is expected to close in August or September, faces antitrust scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department as well as a national security review from an interagency panel led by the Treasury Department.

The deal also is being challenged by at least three shareholder lawsuits that assert the directors of Aeroflex failed to secure the best price in the sale.