Boeing let the midnight deadline on April 24 pass before announcing that it was pulling out of the deal to acquire the commercial aircraft arm of Brazil’s Embraer first agreed in 2018.
Boeing has cited that Embraer failed to meet a number of conditions required for the transaction to be closed. Embraer has retaliated by making it clear it feels Boeing has done everything it can to sabotage the deal in light of the financial crisis being faced through the continued grounding of the MAX 737 jet and current COVID-19 crisis. “Over the past several months, we had productive but ultimately unsuccessful negotiations … We all aimed to resolve those by the initial termination date, but it didn’t happen,” Boeing senior vice-president Marc Allen said in a statement.
“Embraer believes strongly that Boeing has wrongfully terminated the (agreement,)” the Brazilian company said. Boeing’s interest in Embraer came about as a result of Airbus’ acquisition of Bombardier’s C Series, now renamed the A220, with the American planemaker looking to capitalize on cheaper Brazilian engineers and new manufacturing options.
According to Reuters news agency, the deal included a US$100 million breakup fee, but Embraer will likely seek Boeing for appreciably more, alleging that the long period of uncertainty has hindered sales of its E2 jets. It confirmed it would pursue “all remedies” against Boeing, though without expanding on the statement.
