EMS Technologies Inc., a Norcross, Ga. wireless broadband communications firm, was counseled by King & Spalding partner Mark Thompson in London on a $46 million acquisition of a British company.

In the all-cash deal agreement, EMS will acquire Satamatics Global Ltd. of Tewkesbury, United Kingdom. The companies expect to close the deal early next year, pending approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and other conditions.

Thompson was lead partner for King & Spalding. Other Atlanta-based attorneys involved included partners Eleanor Banister, Ray Baltz, Suzanne Feese and Holmes Hawkins. Steptoe & Johnson partner Alfred Mamlet in Washington advised Satamatics.

Satamatics makes satellite data communications terminals for mobile asset tracking and monitoring. EMS is involved in several business segments, such as providing voice, e-mail, video conferencing and Internet capabilities on aircraft. EMS also makes LXE-brand handheld and vehicle-mounted computers used in logistics management; and it makes microwave-based communications equipment for defense contractors.

Out with the old, in with the new.

With its bankruptcy filing and the sale of its U.S. broker-dealer and investment bank operations to Barclays Plc, storied investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s ceased to exist on Monday as an independent company. The end of Lehman will result in many things, of course, but one of those things is Lehman’s disappearance from the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks.

On Friday, S&P replaced Lehman Brothers with Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla. Many mutual funds and other money managers will now be required to buy stock in Harris Corp., if their funds are tied to the S&P 500, according to the Associated Press.

Harris just obtained a $750 million, five-year revolving credit facility from a group of lenders. SunTrust Bank served as administrative agent on the transaction. King & Spalding partner Carolyn Alford and associate Jenny Miller, both in Atlanta, advised SunTrust.

Harris is a defense contractor that makes microwave and satellite network transmission equipment, handheld radios, air traffic control systems and other types of communications products.

Omega Training Group Inc. of Columbus, Ga. tapped Burr & Forman partner Tully Hazell in Atlanta for the lead corporate counsel gig on its $61 million all-cash acquisition by Cubic Corp.

Burr partner Bill Joseph worked on tax issues and associate Kathryn Bouchillon worked with Hazell on corporate matters. Cubic General Counsel William L. Hoese handled legal matters on behalf of his company.

Omega provides training, logistics, software development and staffing services to the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, Ga. and other Army bases. Omega employs 790 people worldwide. The deal did not require Hart-Scott-Rodino Act review for antitrust concerns, nor did it require approval by the U.S. Department of Defense, Hazell said.

Cubic, of San Diego, has two business units. One is a maker of combat-simulation products, surveillance systems and robots for the military. The other makes smart cards, passenger gates and fare-collection machines for mass-transit subway and bus systems. Cubic makes the Breeze Card for Atlanta’s MARTA subway and bus network.

The U.S. economy may be in the doldrums, but the federal government keeps plugging away, signing contracts and purchasing assets and services from private companies.

While McKenna Long & Aldridge partner Jeremy Silverman wouldn’t say the federal government is water-tight safe from the recession, he did offer that federal government contractors seem to be immune from the current economic downturn. Moreover, Washington is increasingly privatizing many of its functions, creating a boon for government contractors.

“There has been a huge increase in federal spending with private firms over the last decade,” said Silverman, an M&A partner in Atlanta.

Federal spending on government contracts increased from $209 billion in 2000 to $430 billion in 2007, according to USAspending.gov.

The steady stream of business generated by federal contracts has caught the eye of investors. One such deal involved i2S Inc., a Columbia, Md.-based company that provides information-technology services to federal agencies like the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office, as well as private government contractors like Northrop Grumman.

In the transaction, the management of i2S acquired control of the company from the Grosvenor Funds of Washington. Silverman and other McKenna Long attorneys advised i2S on the deal.

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Powell Goldstein partner Todd Wade was adviser to Eagle Group International LLC on its buyout by the giant defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Eagle Group, headquartered near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, provides logistics and information technology services, as well as healthcare management, to the U.S. Department of Defense. Eagle Group was founded in 1995 and the company employs more than 1,350 people.

Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, Md., is the world’s largest defense contractor.