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Tag: cloud

Private equity firm to acquire Herndon tech company

Herndon-based tech company Exostar LLC announced Tuesday it will be acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC.

The transaction amount was not disclosed. 

Exostar is a cloud-based platform that allows companies to securely share information and operate with security compliance. The platform is used by more than 135,000 aerospace and defense organizations across 150 countries. Thoma Bravo specializes in the software and technology-enabled services sector and will partner with Exostar’s management to expand the company’s cybersecurity offerings.

“Our corporate vision remains unchanged … to be a trusted, innovative leader in secure business collaboration for highly-regulated industries,” Exostar President and CEO Richard Addi said in a statement. “Thoma Bravo’s strategic investment positions us to more rapidly expand our community and deliver the digital trust that must exist between an enterprise and its suppliers, customers and partners.”

Founded in 2000, Exostar was developed as a joint venture among BAE Systems plc, The Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., The Raytheon Co., Rolls-Royce Holdings plc and Merck & Co. Inc. In 2015, Exostar raised $15 million in venture capital from Merck Global Health Innovation Fund. 

Kirkland & Ellis is serving as legal adviser to Thoma Bravo. Exostar is using AGC Partners as its financial adviser, and Latham & Watkins LLP as its legal adviser in the transaction.

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Texas company starts building second data center in Ashburn

Plano, Texas-based data center infrastructure company Aligned Energy LLC has started construction on its second data center in Loudoun County’s Ashburn area, the company announced Tuesday. 

Aligned finished construction on its first 370,000-square-foot, 60-megawatt data in 2019. The new data center will add 513,000 square feet and 120 megawatts to the existing campus.

“The first phase of Aligned’s Ashburn data center campus was completed in approximately six months, and we’re now on target to deliver the initial phase of our second Ashburn facility, a fully-commissioned 40 [megawatt center], by the close of 2020,” Aligned CEO Andrew Schaap said in a statement.

Aligned also has data centers in Dallas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. Loudoun County is the primary data center hub of the world, with more than 70% of all internet traffic passing through Ashburn.

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Reston-based IndraSoft wins $43M Army contract

Reston-based software company IndraSoft Inc. has been granted a $43 million contract from the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) to enable data sharing and DevSecOps system integration, the company announced Monday. This contract will support the Army’s Maintenance of Enterprise Technologies and Applications (META) program.

DevOps is a set of practices that automates processes between software development and IT services, and DevSecOps integrates security into that process. IndraSoft, under the contract, will migrate Army data to secure cloud operations and implement cloud architecture to increase efficiency and lower costs for INSCOM.

“META represents a key aspect of the Army’s national security mission,” IndraSoft President and Chief Technology Officer Raj Lingam said in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with the Army to enable their vision for exploiting cloud technologies to increase mission effectiveness.”

IndraSoft was founded in 2002 and has also served the Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force, Department of State, Department of Justice and the U.S. Census Bureau, among others.

SAIC set to acquire Unisys Federal for $1.2B

Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) will acquire Unisys Federal for $1.2 billion, SAIC announced Thursday.

Both companies are Reston-based, publicly traded federal contractors specializing in IT services.

The transaction was approved by SAIC’s board of directors and the transaction is expected to close by May 1.

Unisys Federal is an operating unit of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Unisys. The company provides infrastructure modernization, cloud migration and other IT services to the federal government. SAIC provides similar services such as cloud services, software and advanced analytics to the federal government.

“This exciting opportunity advances our strategy by building on our modernization capabilities, increasing customer access, accelerating growth and enhancing shareholder value,” SAIC CEO Nazzic Keene said in a statement. “The financial benefits of acquiring Unisys Federal are compelling, including accretion of adjusted EBITDA margins, non-GAAP earnings per share and cash generation.”

Guggenheim Securities LLC and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. financially advised SAIC during the transaction and Atlanta-based King & Spalding LLP provided legal counsel.

 

Fairfax-based ICF to acquire cloud services provider for $255M

Fairfax-based consulting and technology services provider ICF International Inc. plans to acquire Arlington-based cloud services provider Incentive Technology Group LLC (ITG) for $255 million, ICF announced Tuesday.

The closing of the transaction is subject to approval and is expected to occur in the first quarter.

“IT modernization and cloud together is estimated to be approximately a $21 billion federal market and one in which ICF already has gained traction through organic expansion,” ICF President and CEO John Wasson said in a statement. “The 350-plus people at ITG are driving transformational solutions through the adoption of next generation technologies for federal government agencies. … We see significant revenue synergies by combining ICF’s domain expertise … with ITG.”

ITG was founded in 2010 and mainly works with federal government agency clients on cloud-based implementations and other IT services such as architecture and design of code pipelines. In 2019, ITG had approximately $90 million in revenue, and ended the year with a revenue run-rate in excess of $100 million.

“As one team, ICF and ITG bring highly complementary capabilities and will be uniquely positioned to architect and implement technology platforms that drive the strategic transformation agencies need to meet their new mandates,” ITG COO JC Chidiac said in a statement.

ICF expects to net a tax benefit of approximately $33 million from the acquisition. After the acquisition is complete, it’s expected that the company’s leverage ratio (proportion of debts to capital) will be less than 2.7%. If the acquisition is closed by the end of January, ICF expects its revenue to increase by roughly 10% in 2020 — its revenue was $1.48 billion in 2019.

ICF will provide formal 2020 guidance in its full-year 2019 earnings to be released on Feb. 27.

ICF was founded in 1969 and has more than 7,000 full-and part-time employees with offices in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In 2014, ICF acquired Olson, an integrated marketing technology and digital services provider, and in August 2019 announced that it would have a new headquarters in Reston in close proximity to Google Reston.

 

SAIC nets $727M Air Force contract

Reston-based information technology company Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) received a $727 million contract from the U.S. Air Force that will move mission applications for the Air Force and Army to the cloud, SAIC announced Friday.

SAIC was founded in 2013 and provides systems engineering, cloud migration, analytics, simulation, training and other IT services to defense, space, federal civilian and intelligence clients — including the Department of Defense.

For the contract, SAIC will migrate approximately 800 Air Force and U.S. Army mission applications into the cloud. Cloud computing allows users to store and access data via the internet instead of a computer hard drive.

The Common Computing Environment contract was awarded by the Air Force, but will also serve Army applications.

“The Air Force and Army need speed, scale and security in migrating their mission apps to the cloud,” Michael LaRouche, executive vice president and general manager of SAIC’s National Security Customer Group, said in a statement. “We leveraged the best of our own proprietary solutions and partners’ technologies to develop a smart migration approach to address the military’s critical needs.”

Arlington cloud security company appoints two execs

Arlington-based cloud security company DivvyCloud appointed Brandie Kalinowski as vice president of people and culture and David Geevaratne as vice president of North American Sales, the company announced Thursday.

Kalinowski most recently was  head of people operations at Etsy in Brooklyn, New York. She will focus on recruiting and developing DivvyCloud’s  workforce.

Geevaratne has 20 years of cloud sales and marketing experience and will oversee DivvyCloud’s  enterprise sales strategy. He was most recently the general manager and market leader for SoftwareONE, headquartered in Switzerland.

“We are thrilled to have Brandie and David onboard,” said DivvyCloud CEO and co-founder Brian Johnson. “Our team grew by more than 110% in 2019, and we plan to double it in 2020.”

DivvyCloud was founded in 2013 and moved its Rosslyn headquarters to Arlington’s Court House neighborhood in September 2019. It plans to double its workforce to 120 people by September.

Tysons cloud computing firm acquires Spanish software company

Tysons-based cloud computing company Appian Corp. has acquired Seville, Spain-based software company Novayre Solutions SL, developer of the Jidoka Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platform.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not released.

RPA is the use of specialized computer programs to automate repeatable business processes. Using RPA, companies can process transactions, manipulate data, trigger responses and communicate with other systems.

One of Appian’s main products is its Jidoka RPA, along with other workflow and artificial intelligence products. The RPA market is expected to reach $12 billion by 2023, according to market research company Forrester.

“Appian is extending our lead in low-code automation by adding RPA,” Appian CEO Matt Calkins said in a statement released Wednesday. “Together, the products enable end-to-end process orchestration where humans, software robots, and AI all work together in a coordinated way.”

Appian was founded in 1999 and employs approximately 1,200 people.