GTGP News: MSE sale OK’d - Florida firm buys longtime, local engineering operation
After several delays, the sale of Butte’s MSE Technology Applications, Inc. to the Florida-based Global Technologies Group, Inc. is moving ahead with approval of current owners Montana Economic Revitalization and Development Institute.
Jim Fallacaro, president of Global Technologies, announced Monday his company will assume operation of MSE and all subsidiaries effective Oct. 25. Until then, terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Fallacaro plans to relocate his companies and holdings to the MSE facilities in Butte, where he spent last week implementing a plan of operations.
He also hired a new director of operations for MSE, who is not named in the announcement but described as a “capable executive and well-known engineer,” with “vast experience and expertise in government and private industry.”
The director’s credentials will be posted on the MSE website after Oct. 25.
“We are looking forward to commencing with the operation of MSE this month,” Fallacaro said in his announcement. “We appreciate the support we have received from all involved with these agreements, as well as the employees, the people of Butte and representatives of state and federal government.”
Fallacaro declined further comment when contacted Monday by The Montana Standard.
Global Technologies is in the business of acquiring exclusive licenses and distribution contracts for products in the environmental, green energy and defense industries. (MSE operated under the strategic goals). The company owns technologies that keep heavy metals out of the air and water.
Fallacaro previously reached a verbal agreement to purchase MSE – a longtime Butte engineering company – in July. At that time, he told The Standard he would like to hire or rehire 30 to 40 employees in the first three months after completing the sale.
MSE currently employs 60 people: 40 full-time and 20 part-time. In 2008, it employed 175 people.
The sale was supposed to be finalized Sept. 14, but wound up delayed after the Securities and Exchange Commission handed Global Technologies with a 10-day trading suspension. The company has since returned to trading.
In a letter to shareholders, Fallacaro took responsibility for the temporary suspension. SEC investigators, he explained, sought “financial information needed … to comply with the reporting company regulations, stemming from errors made in 2007 and to the present 10Q.”
Jim Kambich, president of MERDI, said the suspension never discouraged sides from finishing the deal. Their boards of directors have since signed off on the purchase contract, and anticipate a speedy transition.
“We’re excited,” Kambich told The Standard. “We have worked diligently over the last few months. Obviously, things have been moving along for a while now.”
— Reporter George Plaven may be reached at 496-5597, or via email at george.plaven@lee.net . Follow him at Twitter.com/ @George_Plaven.
