CORPORATIONS: Small-Business Battler

In the rough jousting for prime defense contracts, the small business with fewer than 1,000 employees usually fares badly against the giants. But last week the missile industry was abuzz over little Acoustica Associates, Inc. (sales for the fiscal year ending February 1960: $8,106,788), which became the first small business to be chosen a prime contractor for the operational Atlas missile system.

Competing against such giants as General Dynamics Corp.'s Convair, North American Aviation, Inc. and General Electric Co., Acoustica won a contract to develop and produce a crucial system for the...

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