Stanley closes Oberon buy

Stanley Inc. has closed its acquisition of Oberon Associates Inc., a company specializing in engineering, intelligence operations and information technology services.

The Arlington, Va., systems integrator announced June 10 that it intended to buy Oberon for about $170 million cash. The acquisition closed July 15.

Oberon provides services to a broad government customer base that includes the Army, Air Force, Defense Information Systems Agency, Transportation Security Administration and intelligence agencies. As a result of the acquisition, Stanley will gain about 600 employees working at 10 offices in the United States and abroad.

In the realm of biometrics, the acquisition takes Stanley into new ground, enabling it to compete with some of the largest systems integrators in the government market for opportunities with the Defense Department, said Kevin DeSanto, a principal at the investment banking firm KippsDeSanto and Co., which advised Oberon on the transaction.

"The acquisition puts Stanley in a number of new markets ? one of which is the very high-growth, high-profile market of biometrics," DeSanto said. "It gives them a whole suite in biometrics that they didn't have before. ? Stanley is now a major player in biometrics because of the acquisition."

Oberon has extensive experience in using a wide range of biometrics to help defense and intelligence customers build terrorist watch lists, he added.

DeSanto said the two companies share an aggressive growth strategy. "Oberon is a very fast-growing business, which is consistent with what Stanley has done over the past couple of years," he said.

Oberon ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology's 2007 Fast 50 list of the fastest growing small businesses in the government market. The company had a compound annual growth rate of 191.75 percent.

Stanley ranks No. 48 on Washington Technology's 2008 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.