42 companies from the 2016 Top 100 are gone. What happened to them?
Gettyimages.com/Andriy Onufriyenko
By
Nick Wakeman
A decade of mergers, divestitures and shifting priorities has reshaped the federal market. The next 10 years may be just as turbulent.
It has been a decade of change for the Washington Technology Top 100, with 42 companies from the 2016 Top 100 no longer appearing in the rankings.
But this is not a story reminiscent of old war movies where you are told to look at the people to your left and right, and one is not going to make it.
Most of the companies who no longer make the rankings have been acquired since 2016, starting with CSRA, which ranked at No. 4 in 2016. General Dynamics acquired CSRA.
PAE, who hit No. 15 in 2016, was acquired by Amentum in 2022. Engility at No. 19 was acquired in 2019 by Science Applications International Corp.
In total, 28 of the 42 missing companies were involved in some type of merger and acquisition activity that includes divestitures.
Included in this list are Harris and L-3 Communications, which were respectively ranked No. 11 and No. 24 in 2016. They merged in 2019 to create L3Harris Technologies, which now ranks No. 8.
Other marquee names from 2016 that have disappeared because of acquisitions include Vencore, Alion, DynCorp, CenturyLink, Wyle and Unisys.
Some of the divestitures we tracked include General Electric, Honeywell and Rockwell Collins.
Several missing companies were ranked in the lower part of the Top 100 and simply fell off the rankings, but continue to do work in the market.
For example, the drop experienced by John Snow Inc. and ABT Global can be explained by changes in government priorities. Both companies were heavily involved in international development work, which was an early target for deep cuts by the Trump administration.
While still on the Top 100, other international development companies such as Development Alternatives Inc. and Chemonics International have seen their rankings suffer.
As interesting as it is to talk about the companies no longer on the Top 100, it is also informative to mention SpaceX and Blue Origin as examples of Top 100 companies that were nowhere near the rankings in 2016. Palantir celebrated its 13th birthday in 2016, but did not crack the Top 100 until 2021.
Two other companies were not around in 2016. Peraton was created in 2017, when Harris divested its IT business. Guidehouse came into existence in 2018, when Veritas Capital acquired the PwC U.S. public sector business and rebranded it.
The most notable newcomer in 2026 is Amazon Web Services, which finally cracked the Top 100 this year after flirting on the edge of the rankings.
The Top 100 churn over the past decade reflects a federal market in constant transformation. New missions, new technologies and new kinds of companies always emerge with mergers and acquisitions being a favorite tool.
If the last 10 years produced 42 departures, there are few reasons to think the next 10 years will be any quieter.