Two decades after Boeing put its big aircraft subassembly plants in Wichita, Kansas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, up for sale and created what became Spirit AeroSystems, the company announced late Sunday it has reached an agreement to acquire those major units of Spirit and bring that work back in-house

In a note to Boeing employees Sunday night, CEO Dave Calhoun said, “This is an opportunity to bring back critical airplane manufacturing work on Boeing airplanes into our factories — where Boeing and Spirit world-class engineers and mechanics can work seamlessly together.”

“Among the many actions we’re taking as a company, this is one of the most significant in demonstrating our unwavering commitment to strengthen quality,” he added.

Boeing said the merger is an all-stock transaction at an equity value of about $4.7 billion, or $37.25 per share.

Boeing will also take on Spirit’s last reported net debt of $3.6 billion, so the total transaction value is about $8.3 billion.

Spirit shareholders will receive between 0.25 and 0.18 Boeing shares for each of their Spirit shares, depending on the Boeing stock price when the deal closes.

Since Boeing sold off the business, Spirit diversified to build parts for European rival Airbus and other aircraft makers. So its sale required complex three-party negotiations that will break Spirit up.

Last year, 70% of Spirit’s revenue came from Boeing and 23% from Airbus.

Airbus has simultaneously entered a binding agreement to potentially acquire the units of Spirit in the U.S., France and Morocco that make major sections for its A350 and A220 aircraft. The Boeing acquisition is conditioned on the Airbus acquisition being finalized.

But Airbus won’t pay anything to acquire its parts of Spirit.

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