Adobe seeks greener pastures

Multimedia giant takes aim at selling government solutions.

Planning, process and personnel

Business development teams often struggle to reach growth targets or achieve revenue quotas. It can seem as if you are just digging yourself into a ditch while workingharder to climb out.

Rethinking the pure-play mandate

Most prospective buyers in the government services markets are seeking pure-play, federal-oriented targets. These acquirers are either already focused on thefederal segment and want to expand there or they are seeking to enter the federal arena. This approach essentially involves sticking to the market you know.

GSA pumps up cooperative purchasing

A recent Input Inc. report shows that state and local purchases under GSA's IT schedules grew to $361.2 million in 2007, a marked increase compared to 2006. Inputprojects sales under cooperative purchasing to continue to grow at a compound annual rate of 24.6 percent, surpassing $1 billion by 2012.

Acquisition Solutions makes a deal of its own

<font color="CC0000">(UPDATED) </font color>Acquisition Solutions Inc. has sold an ownership stake in the company to Denver-based private equity firm Excellere Partners.

Where they are now | After contracting: Back to basics

Joseph Kampf parlays Anteon years into private equity fund leadership.

Quarterly reports: Firms hit their targets

With the public federal IT services firms having reported results for the quarterended Dec. 31, there have been some noteworthy trends. Contract awards have generally been lighter than last quarter. However, I anticipate better contract award activity in the next few quarters.

Cross-border deals take center stage

A flurry of international deals involving European buyers ofU.S. defense and civilian contractors has been under waysince early 2007. Of 292 transactions by strategic buyersof U.S.-based defense companies in 2007, 50 buyerswere foreign ? 17 percent. So far in 2008, two of 17 deals involveforeign buyers.

Global SI business on the rise

Systems integrators' hourly billing rates are rising for the first time in years, indicating a "healthy" market for such services, according to a new report.

Government customers want speed, quality

Traditional manager meetings in January often provide a false sense of comfort. Market forecasts and analyses are presented, often by an outside expert. But few companieswill make the connection between external market forces and the effect on internal operations.

Welcome to the bipolar M&A market

The government services mergers and acquisition market has been consistently active since 2001. But today it's more of a bipolar M&A market driven by the small-business recertification requirements that took effect July 1.

Vista opts for employee stock ownership

Vista Technology Services Inc., a company specializing in federal real property systems, is launching an employee stock ownership plan.

SmartBuy Security LOB contract in development

A blanket purchase agreement could be in place as early as late summer.

Analysts: Cogent stock overvaluation charges premature

The stock price of federal biometrics supplier Cogent Inc. is recovering after taking a dip Monday on media speculation that it may have been overvalued.

Aggressive moves

Health, logistics, IP management among CSC targets.

The future looks bright for M&A in '08

Next year, the industry should continue to benefit from many of the positive factors from 2007, including significant liquidity available to strategic and financial buyers for acquisitions and greater competition for deals.

Patent rules would impede innovation

The U.S. patent system has been vital to the American economy and the U.S. role inthe world economy. Patents have taken center stage in fostering innovation andserving as the catalyst for innovation.

Services play lead in GTSI turnaround

GTSI Corp.'s transformation from an IT reseller to an IT services and solutions provider continues to show signs of success as the company reported a profit in the last quarter.

Federal security market reaches maturity

Slowing growth in government spending has intensified contractors' search for othergrowth areas, particularly those with high priority, within the budgets at all levels of government.

Consistency builds customer relationships

Guest commentary: How to build your business development team.