Matra BAe Dynamics was formed in August 1996 by merger of half the missile business of Matra Defense of France and BAe Dynamics (a division of British Aerospace) of the UK and was Europe's largest manufacturer of missiles and UAVs. British Aerospace had previously sought to merge its missile business with Thomson-CSF, the companies announced their plan to create a new combined company called Eurodynamics in 1989. However, after more than a year of monopoly investigations the deal collapsed.