Boeing has acquired Jeppesen Sanderson for the sum of $1.5 billion in cash. It intends to operate the company, which it is buying from the Tribune Company, as a wholly owned subsidiary, and will keep current management in place. The agreement is subject to regulatory approval.

Jeppesen generated $235 million in revenues in 1999 (according to Boeing's reckoning) and has experienced annual growth of around ten per cent since 1997.

"We've made it clear that we are transforming Boeing into a global aerospace solutions provider, and growing our aviation services business is a major part of that," said Boeing chairman Phil Condit. "If you're a pilot almost anywhere in the world, you know Jeppesen," he said.

Boeing has also recently added Continental Graphics (which provides parts information to airlines) and The Preston Group (Australian management software provider) to its shopping cart.

"What we are doing is acquiring intellectual capital and technology," Condit added.

Jeppesen has 1,400 employees, mostly in the US but with operations in the UK and Germany. Said Horst Bergmann, ceo of Jeppesen: "We have been passionate about aviation since Captain Jepp Jeppesen founded the company in 1934. "In a way, we're coming home, because Captain Jepp worked for Boeing in the early 1930s as a pilot for Boeing Air Transport."