Ceradyne Inc. directors have agreed to a sale of the Costa Mesa-based company to 3M Co. of Minnesota for $860 million, a 43% premium over its stock price.
Shareholders still must approve the 3M offer.
Ceradyne makes ceramics-based body armor and other products for the defense, industrial and commercial markets. Ceradyne is the 25th-largest public company based in Orange County with $572 million in revenue last year, when profit totaled $83.9 million. It has 400 OC workers and 2,400 overall.
3M makes a wide range of consumer and industrial products. It had $29.61 billion in revenue last year, with profit of $4.28 billion.
The deal for Ceradyne is 3M’s biggest acquisition since its 2010 buy of Pasadena-based fingerprint identification systems maker Cogent Inc.
3M officials said in a statement they expect the acquisition to be completed this quarter. The statement made no mention of how top management, including Chairman and Chief Executive Joel Moskowitz, might be affected by a sale to 3M.
