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STORY: Boeing said Monday it will buy its supplier Spirit Aerosystems for $4.7 billion.The U.S. planemaker moved after a crisis caused by a mid-air blowout on a 737 MAX jet led to questions over quality.Boeing rival Airbus has also agreed to take on the supplier's loss-making Europe-focused activities, in return for hundreds of millions of dollars of compensation.Boeing spun off Spirit in 2005, and has long considered a buyback.The decision to go ahead now comes as the aerospace giant tries to resolve a crisis at one of the industry's key suppliers.January's blowout incident involved a door plug made by Spirit, and contributed to a major slowdown in output at Boeing.The planemaker announced the planned departure of CEO Dave Calhoun in the wake of the crisis.Now the deal is due to close around midway through next year, and is seen as an effort to address its safety problems and shore up its production line.Airbus is also a Spirit customer, and didn't want arch-rival Boeing building parts for its latest jets. It has now confirmed it will take over core activities at four of the supplier's plants to avoid that.Sources said the move was loosely coordinated between the three companies. Airbus said it would receive $559 million in compensation from Spirit, depending on the final outlines of the deal.
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