Professional services and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton [BAH] on Tuesday said it has agreed to buy federal contractor Aquilent for $250 million in a deal that the company said would strengthen its technology know-how, particularly in the area of digital services.
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of this year.
Booz Allen said the acquisition is expected to add about $30 million to $35 million to its sales in fiscal year 2017, when ends next March. It also said the deal will be accretive to earnings and add to operating margin in fiscal year 2018.
Booz Allen declined to provide annual sales for Maryland-based Aquilent but said the company’s revenue has grown at a 28 percent compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. Aquilent has 350 employees that provide digital and clouds services to the Department of Health and Human Services, United States Postal Service, General Services Administration, and other federal customers.
Booz Allen said that Aquilent’s technology expertise in cloud, mobile and modular services using methodologies such as Agile, DevOps and open source, will help it expand its consulting business.
“This acquisition further advances our long-term growth strategy,” Horacio Rozanski, president and CEO of Booz Allen, said in a statement. “We are driving sustainable quality growth through client solutions that blend technical capabilities and talent with our consulting heritage. This exciting addition to Booz Allen will bolster our capacity to provide digital transformation to clients.”
Booz Allen’s long-term growth strategy is called Vision 2020 and is driven by customer demand in areas such as the cloud, big data and mobility, advanced development methodologies, and rapid solution deployments. Once the acquisition closes, Aquilent’s facility in Laurel, Md., will become part of Booz Allen’s Digital Solutions Network, which is a network of high-tech office hubs throughout the U.S. that “foster innovation and collaboration on modern software development,” a company spokeswoman told Defense Daily.
Houlihan Lokey [HLI] served as Aquilent’s financial adviser on the deal.