Hydroacoustics gets bought by local investors

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Hydroacoustics Inc.-a longtime defense contractor here-has been acquired by a local management team that has other investments in the Rochester area.
George Gazarek and Michael Czora led the management team and will assume leadership at the Henrietta firm.
Gazarek has been named president and CEO; Czora will be the vice president and chief operating officer.
Both are investors of East Rochester-based Spectracom Corp., which designs and manufactures global positioning system synchronized network timer servers and precise transmitter frequency control devices.
Gazarek previously served as president and CEO of Spectracom and Czora was part of the management team.
Czora said this week Hydroacoustics will retain its 11 employees and remain at its current site.
Robert DeLaCroix, vice president and chief technology officer, and Joyce Smith, vice president of finance and treasurer, plan to remain with the company as part of the management team.
The privately held firm was bought for an undisclosed sum from two of the company’s founders-John Bouyoucos, former president, and Marshall Lesser, former vice president of administration.
There were investors outside of New York interested in purchasing the company, but Bouyoucos and Lesser said they chose to sell to local buyers so the employees would remain in the Rochester area.
Hydroacoustics is a research and development company that designs, develops, manufactures and tests various underwater sound generators for both military and industrial applications.
The firm’s two primary products-a continuous wave acoustic source for underwater applications and an impulsive broadband system-are backed by more than 30 U.S. and international patents.
Gazarek was interested in the firm’s growth opportunities and dedicated employees. He sees growth areas in the fields of defense, homeland security and energy.
Czora said the management team expects to add six employees this year in the areas of engineering, marketing and manufacturing. He declined to disclose revenues but expects double-digit growth over the next year.
Hydroacoustics was founded in 1972 by former employees of defense contractor General Dynamic Corp, which employed more people in the 1960s at its local electronics division than Eastman Kodak Co. Shortly after, General Dynamics moved the operation to California.
A majority of Hydroacoustics’ business is from the government. The firm ranked fourth among area companies for defense-related work in 2001, with contracts totaling $2.5 million.
Its largest customers include the Coast Guard Research and Development Center and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, which awarded the firm a $13 million contract roughly a year ago for high-powered underwater sound sources. It is one of a series of contracts the firm has received from the government agency since the 1970s.
The Naval Undersea Warfare Center, based in Newport, R.I., is the Navy’s research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support center for submarines, underwater systems and offensive and defensive weapons systems associated with undersea warfare.
The company also works with commercial customers and educational institutions.
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10/20/06 (C) Rochester Business Journal