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Prescient Timing:
On Sept. 15, Telos Corp. told Big Six firm Coopers & Lybrand that it was dismissing the accounting company in favor of Price Waterhouse.

Three days later, Coopers and Price Waterhouse announced that they will merge to become the country's largest accounting firm. Coopers won't leave Telos' side after all.

Telos, a government contractor based in Ashburn, Va., told the Securities and Exchange Commission that the switch was not based on any disagreement with Coopers. No further reason for the change was given. A Telos spokeswoman said that the change should not be costly to the company and should be a transparent move.

Culture Club:
"Culture is institutional health," said Michael Saylor, president of MicroStrategy Inc. in Vienna, Va., at a recent Northern Virginia Technology Council event.

Saylor is infamous for his company's yearly Caribbean cruises in which the 485 employees get away from it all in the sun. The company also hosts a weekend each year in which family and friends of employees are invited to see what Micro-Strategy does. The company pays air fares for out-of-town loved ones to come in for the bash.

Corporations need to reinvest more in their people, said Saylor, whose company has very little turnover. He challenged the executives in the audience to test their commitment to their employees by going back to their offices and asking staffers at all levels to describe the mission of the company.

Teligent to Go Public, Get Japanese Investment:
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. said it will invest $100 million in Teligent, an Alexandria, Va.-based telecom company that is set to soon move to Tysons Corner, Va.

NTT's investment in the fledgling company will in turn get it a 12.5 percent equity interest and a seat on Teligent's board of directors.

Additionally, Teligent said it "soon" intends to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.

Learning Tree Opens New Branch:
Learning Tree International has opened a new center in Rockville, Md., its second office in the area. The company's headquarters are in Reston, Va.

The company trains adults in information technology. Learning Tree currently has 150 course offerings, including Windows NT, Java and Unix.

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