Reuters names Stone its aerospace/defense reporter

Soyoung Kim, regulation editor at Reuters, sent out the following announcement on Tuesday:

Colleagues,

I’m delighted to announce that Mike Stone is joining the Washington bureau to lead coverage of the military industrial complex, the business of war and its intersection with foreign and national security policy. In this role, he will cover the largest U.S. aerospace and defense companies supplying the U.S. and foreign governments with weapons and services, and how they’re succeeding and failing at their respective missions. Responsibilities include covering earnings of the top defense and aerospace companies in the United States, corporate M&A, international arms sales and DOD acquisition and procurement. In addition, he will work with the national security team to monitor the rationales, cost effectiveness, shortcomings of major Defense Department weapons programs such as the F-35, the Ford-class aircraft carrier and the planned modernization of U.S. nuclear forces.

Mike, who covers mergers and acquisitions based in New York, joined Reuters in 2014 from news service Dealreporter. At Reuters, he has broken news day in and day out on how America’s largest companies are tying the knot with their biggest competitors, splitting into smaller companies to respond to shareholder pressure, or selling major assets to focus on their core businesses. Among other exclusives, he broke news in 2014 that US drugmaker AbbVie made a $46 billion unsolicited takeover bid for UK rival Shire, in what was one of the largest ‘inversion’ attempts by U.S. healthcare companies to acquire overseas rivals to lower their tax rates.

Mike will start his new role on Oct. 3 and report to me. He will also work closely with our U.S. foreign policy team led by John Walcott as well as colleagues in Europe and Asia who cover aerospace and defense. Please join me in welcoming Mike to the Washington newsroom!