 A dramatic week in GovCon saw uncertainty and disagreement on Capitol Hill over how to fund the Department of Homeland Security this year and another significant acquisition in the government services market by one of its stalwart brands.
DHS and its private sector partners breathed a small sigh of relief Tuesday when the Houseapproved a bill already passed by the Senate to fund the department for the rest of this fiscal year to the tune of $39.7 billion. The department faced the prospect of at least a partial shutdown unless Congress reached a deal to continue funding DHS. On the previous morning, GovCon observers and stakeholders woke up to the news that SAIC would make its first acquisition — a planned $790 million cash buy of Scitor — since the 2013 spinoff from former parent company Leidos.
Scitor is currently owned by private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners and works with U.S. intelligence and military agencies in areas such as systems engineering, acquisition support and cybersecurity.
 In a subsequent call with investors, SAIC CEO Tony Moraco said the company had assessed potential opportunities in the intelligence market over the past year and Scitor’s presence in the intelligence and Air Force markets has “very little overlap with (SAIC’s) existing business.”
“This acquisition accelerates SAIC’s entry into the intel community by providing access to classified contracts, cleared personnel and a robust security infrastructure,” Moraco said.
Several other firms in the GovCon space made smaller deals for undisclosed sums of money to grow their footprints in adjacent markets and complement current offerings.
For more on those deals, please read our list of top stories for the week.
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The Potomac Officers Club will turn its attention on March 19 to the cybersecurity arena with “2015 Cyber Security Summit,” a half-day forum for government and business leaders to interact and exchange ideas for how to protect information systems.
We are excited to announce that Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe will deliver the keynote address to the GovCon and public sector executive audience at this interactive event for leaders to discuss items such as trade secret and information defense.
Public-private partnerships and policies at the federal and subordinate levels of government are also on the agenda for discussion at the summit. Additional speakers scheduled to appear include: (in order of headshots from left to right) - Steve Chabinsky, former deputy assistant director for cyber at the FBI
- Joe Demarest, assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division
- Curtis Dukes, director of information assurance at NSA
- Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center
- Phil Lacombe, VP & manager of Parsons’ information systems and security sector
- Tim McMillan, a director at Siemens Government Technologies
- Ari Schwartz, senior director for cyber programs for the National Security Council
- Steve Shirley, executive director of the Defense Cyber Crime Center
- Chris Smith, VP of technology for AT&T’s government solutions business
- Mark Weatherford, former deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity at DHS
Click here to register for this event and learn more about POC’s other upcoming events. THIS WEEK’S TOP NEWS STORIES |
A Note From Our President & Founder Jim Garrettson
On the previous morning, GovCon observers and stakeholders woke up to the news that SAIC would make its first acquisition — a planned 
The 
