Astronics to acquire test and service division of EADS NA EAST AURORA, N.Y., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Defense and aerospace technologies company Astronics Corp. plans to acquire all the assets of EADS North America's Test and Services division. Under the definitive agreement, Astronics will pay about $53 million in cash plus a net working capital adjustment for the division. The deal is expected to close next month, subject to regulatory and customary approvals. "EADS T&S has developed a strong presence in a diversified set of industries, which provides a broad range of market opportunities for growth," said Peter J. Gundermann, chief executive officer of Astronics. We also believe that the business possesses a skill set which is highly complementary to our own, and together we will field a stronger team than either entity would do on their own. EADS T&S is located in Irvine, Calif. It provides highly engineered automatic test systems, subsystems and instruments for the semiconductor, consumer electronics, commercial aerospace and defense industries. It was founded in 1950 as Racal Electronics Group and currently has about 210 employees.