Who made the year's best deals?

We tracked 103 mergers and acquisitions during 2017. Here are our picks for the best deals including the best dealmaker, newcomer and merger of equals.

During 2017, more than 100 mergers and acquisitions closed in the government market and were transformative events for the companies involved.

For buyers, the deals represent opportunities to add new contracts, new capabilities and add scale. It helps them crack new markets and gain critical skill sets.

For the sellers, the reasons vary. For company founders, it can mean retirement has come. For large businesses, it is often about shaping their portfolio and jettisoning a business that doesn’t fit with their core strategies. And for others, being acquired is an opportunity to join forces with a large organization that can bring more resources and support.

Washington Technology tracked and evaluated these deals. With the help and input of the market’s leading investment bankers, we identified the best among them.

We’ve picked best dealmakers, the best single deal of the year, best intelligence-related deal, best divestiture and other top deals of the year.

In all, we picked a dozen deals that should be called out as the best of the year.

These stand out because of what they say about trends in the market and how companies are positioning themselves to pursue new opportunities.

What the overall list of deals says about the market is equally important because these deals represent a high level of commitment in the government market. Through their dealmaking, these companies are showing their belief that the market will grow and they want to be leaders in it.

As you look at our list of the top deals as well as our round up of all of the deals that closed during the year, you’ll see a variety of dealmakers.

There are large businesses such as Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI International, Accenture, CSRA, Deloitte and ManTech International. These companies are among the best strategic buyers in the market with adding new capabilities, customers and contract vehicles.

Private equity buyers also continue to find the government market very attractive with at least 30 deals involving them.

And there is plenty of portfolio shaping going on in the market with 14 deals on the list involving the sale of divisions or business units.

The most notable and sizeable of these being Harris Corp.’s sale of its IT business to Veritas Capital, which created Peraton. But other divestitures involved deals by Northrop Grumman, Brocade, BAE Systems and Engility.

During 2017, we also saw a sharp increase in the number of buyers making more than one deal. In fact, 13 buyers made 30 of the 103 deals that closed in 2017, compared to only 6 buyers making more than one deal in 2016.

The overall pace of deals also increased significantly. In 2016, 70 acquisitions closed but in 2017, we saw 103.

The main reason for this is that companies are becoming more aggressive because they see growth returning to the market.

Buyers want the key capabilities in areas such as cyber, IT modernization, cloud computing, analytics and artificial intelligence. They want the contract vehicles. They want the customers. There also seems to be a return to a need for scale.

Scale in particular seems to be driving many of the major deals coming together in 2018. See our sidebar.

Below lists what our experts deemed to be the best deals of 2017. We have major players, private equity, mid-tier buyers and a newcomer. All are making a mark. Not just transforming themselves but also changing the dynamics in the market.

And all indications are that 2018 will only bring more of the same.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.