Engineering consulting firm Belcan, LLC, on Wednesday said it has acquired federal information technology services firm Intercom Consulting & Federal Systems to give it more capabilities to provide services to its global customer base.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Belcan, a portfolio company of the private equity firm AE Industrial Partners, said the deal gives it specialized services. Intercom, which a little more than a year ago reached a milestone by hiring its 100th full-time employee and now has 140 contract personnel all cleared at Secret and above, offers services in cyber security, enterprise management, network engineering and design, and systems architecture and design.

Lance Kwasniewski, CEO of Belcan. Photo: Belcan
Lance Kwasniewski, CEO of Belcan. Photo: Belcan

Intercom’s customers are federal agencies, including the Department of State.

“Intercom expands Belcan’s extensive abilities to serve its clients in the most sensitive, mission-critical assignments around the globe,” Lance Kwasniewski, Belcan’s CEO, said in a statement. David Rowe, managing partner of AE Industrial, said in a statement that, “There’s no question that demand will continue to escalate in the foreseeable future for the highly specialized, essential consulting and services provided by Intercom, particularly in the volatile international environment. Belcan is perfectly situated to introduce these vital services and solutions to commercial clients seeking enhanced security that can meet constantly changing threats and IT solutions for today’s global business demands.”

Belcan, which is based in Ohio, received financial advice on the deal from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Virginia-based Intercom’s financial adviser was the McLean Group.

The McLean Group said the sale of Intercom highlights several key trends in the mergers and acquisition environment around government services firms. One trend is that companies with specialized capabilities in direct support of customer missions, particularly around cyber security, transformative IT projects like cloud computing and data center optimization, represent attractive acquisition targets, it said.

Buyers are also looking for companies that have customers that are difficult to win new business with, the McLean Group said. It also said that private equity investors remain active in the government M&A market.