In June 2000, Bull Electronics Inc. was seeking a buyer or partner for its Lowell, Massachusetts, contract-manufacturing operation while its French parent negotiated separately over a CEM facility in Angers. Lowell general manager Anthony DeVito said the U.S. business could operate independently. Two months later, EE Times reported that Celestica had purchased the Lowell business; ACT Manufacturing was associated with the separate proposed Angers transaction.
Why Bull Electronics was looking for its own path
Bull Electronics Inc. was Bull SA’s U.S.-based contract electronics manufacturing (CEM) operation in Lowell. In June 2000, EE Times reported that the company was seeking a partner or buyer for the facility as Bull considered selling its French CEM operation in Angers to ACT Manufacturing. DeVito said Lowell was not part of the Angers discussions and described the businesses as having no shared work: “We shared zero business with the French operation.”
DeVito also said, “We’ve been on a path to sell the business. We can exist on our own.” That was management’s stated view of Lowell’s ability to stand independently—not the eventual transaction outcome. The August report said Celestica purchased Bull Electronics Inc.
Two facilities, two separate transactions
| Facility | Business involved | Buyer reported | Status in 2000 reporting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowell, Massachusetts | Bull Electronics Inc., the U.S. CEM operation | Celestica | EE Times reported Celestica’s purchase on August 2, 2000. Source |
| Angers, France | Groupe Bull’s French electronics manufacturing operation, Bull Electronics Angers | ACT Manufacturing | EE Times reported in June that Bull was negotiating with ACT and, in August, that ACT had announced plans to acquire the operation. The cited reporting does not establish that the Angers deal closed. Source |
John A. Pino, ACT’s chairman, president, and chief executive, said in June that a definitive agreement was hoped for after consultation with Bull’s work council. That statement concerned ACT’s proposed acquisition of the electronics manufacturing services operation in France; it was not a statement about Lowell.
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What the Lowell operation made and did
The Lowell business served original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), rather than selling identified consumer products under retail model names. The 2000 reports describe work on subassemblies, electromechanical and radio-frequency devices, telecom routers and switches, printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, system assembly, testing, and supply-chain management.
An earlier EDN account of Groupe Bull’s manufacturing business described a service chain that included design support, process development, subassembly and prototyping before production; procurement, PCB assembly and testing, system assembly and functional testing during manufacturing; and fulfillment, logistics, repair, refurbishing and recycling afterward. It also described a shift away from high-volume PC work toward more complex board design and system assembly for communications, medical and instrumentation markets. This is historical context for the business model, not a current service catalog. EDN, November 28, 1998
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What the reports said about size and finances
The contemporaneous reports give differing figures for the Lowell site, so the measurements should remain attached to their publication dates. EE Times described a 100,000-square-foot facility with 300 employees in June 2000. Its August acquisition story described a 130,000-square-foot facility with more than 200 employees. Those accounts do not explain the difference.
The August report put the Lowell plant’s annual run rate at $40 million. That is a reported operating run-rate figure, not the purchase price paid by Celestica. The same story reported $56.6 million for ACT’s planned purchase of Bull Electronics Angers; that amount belongs to the French transaction, not the Lowell sale.
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In June, EE Times reported Bull’s 1999 diversified-operations sales as $4.3 billion and said 65% of Bull’s sales came from outside France. It also noted that Bull did not break out financial information by division, so those figures do not establish Lowell’s individual revenue or profitability.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the story concluded in 2000
On August 2, EE Times reported Celestica’s purchase of Bull Electronics Inc. in Lowell, including the facility and more than 200 employees. Celestica chief executive Eugene Polistuk said the operation and its experienced management team would enhance the company’s service offerings in New England. The same report said ACT had announced plans to acquire Groupe Bull’s French operation in Angers. The reporting therefore records a completed-reported Lowell purchase and a planned Angers purchase—not one deal involving both sites.
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This is a historical account of the 2000 transactions. The cited reports do not establish the later status of the former Lowell facility or the Bull Electronics name.
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