Boeing adds Conquest to expand intel services

The Boeing Co. is buying Conquest Inc., a provider of enterprise architecture, systems engineering and software technology solutions to the intelligence community.

The transaction, announced Jan. 10, is expected to close during the first quarter of 2003. Terms were not disclosed.

Conquest, based in Annapolis Junction, Md., was founded in 1989. The company has 20 contracts valued at $250 million over the next three years, and employs approximately 180 people, most of them in Maryland.
Being acquired by Boeing "was a natural next step for us. We look forward to being a part of the ... team and bringing Boeing's technologies and systems expertise to our work in the intelligence community," said Norman Snyder, president of Conquest.

"By adding the talent at Conquest, Boeing takes another strategic step by expanding its systems offerings to members of the defense and intelligence communities," said Roger Roberts, senior vice president of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. "The strength of each company will directly contribute to Boeing's pursuit of large-scale systems engineering contracts, with each contract laying the foundation for the integrated battlespace."

Conquest will strengthen Boeing's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, officials said. Those capabilities are one of the fundamental elements in creating an integrated battlespace, a network-centric system that takes legacy platforms from different branches of the armed services and intelligence community and forms a network that enables the platforms to operate together.

Headquartered in Chicago, Boeing reported revenue of more than $58 billion in fiscal 2001. The company employs 188,000 people worldwide.