SRA to acquire law enforcement services company

SRA International Inc. is buying Orion Scientific Systems, a Newport Beach, Calif., company specializing in counterintelligence, counterterrorism and law enforcement, SRA announced today.

Terms of the cash and stock deal will not be disclosed until the company's February earnings briefing, but it is expected to close by the end of January.

Ernst Volgenau, chairman and chief executive officer of SRA, said that all of Orion's management team will be staying on. "We're very people oriented, and to us losing people from a firm that is acquired is not what we want to do. We want to keep and productively engage all the people at Orion," he said.

"The Orion acquisition makes both financial and strategic sense. We expect the acquisition to be accretive to earnings in 2004 and provide a healthy return on invested capital for our shareholders," said Steve Hughes, SRA's senior vice president and chief financial officer.

Founded in 1989, Orion is a privately held company focused on national security and homeland defense. Orion provides analytical support, training, system development and proprietary knowledge management applications to intelligence agencies, the Defense Department and law enforcement agencies. Orion has 205 employees, about 85 percent with security clearances. In 2003, the company had about $30 million in revenue.

Volgenau said that SRA will continue to look for opportunities to acquire firms that expand its capabilities.

"We're not trying to build revenue through acquisitions. We are trying to round out our portfolio [of skills]," he said. "We're continuing to look in the entire area of command and control and intelligence."

SRA's services include strategic consulting, systems design, development and integration, and outsourcing and operations management. The company also delivers solutions for text and data mining, contingency and disaster response planning, information assurance, environmental strategies and technology, enterprise architecture, network operations and management and enterprise systems management.

SRA of Fairfax, Va., had $450.4 million in revenue in fiscal 2003, which ended June 30. SRA employs 2,900 employees across the country, and was 32 on the Washington Technology 2003 Top 100 federal prime contractors.