Expanding its national security and defense work, engineering, construction and professional services company Parsons Corp. April 18 said it has acquired Secure Mission Solutions (SMS), which provides cyber and electronic security solutions to federal customers.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Northern Virginia-based SMS had $106 million in sales last year and has over 550 employees.
SMS has domain expertise in virtualization and cloud computing, satellite communications, data center consolidation, identity management, critical infrastructure protection, high performance computing, network operations center and security operations center operations and management, and information assurance. The company’s customers include the intelligence community, Cyber Command, the military services, the Departments of State, Interior and Homeland Security, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), and Military Health Systems. SMS is the prime contractor on three of SPAWAR’s Integrated Cyber Operations Pillar contracts.
“This acquisition is another important step toward meeting our strategic goal of expanding our national security and defense business, and it strengthens our offerings to new and existing customer for their most vital missions,” Chuck Harrington, Parsons’ chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “The addition of Secure Mission Solutions’ capabilities to our current offerings in infrastructure, national security, and defense strongly positions Parsons in the growing cyber security and critical infrastructure protection market.”
Parson began to expand its position in the defense and security space in 2011 with its $350 million acquisition of Sparta, Inc., from Britain’s Cobham, a deal that provided it with more capabilities in analytic services to intelligence and national security customers (Defense Daily, Oct. 20, 2011). Sparta had $322.7 million in sales in 2010 and $144.3 million through the first half of 2011.
Last year, Parsons acquired First Support Services, Inc., from Britain’s FirstGroup, adding a provider of facility operations and maintenance services, logistics and transportation support, and telecommunications operations to the federal government. First Support Services had more than $50 million in annual sales at the time of the acquisition.
SMS will become part of Parson’s Government Services business unit. SMS’ financial adviser on the deal was Houlihan Lokey. SMS was a portfolio company of the private equity firm Riordan, Lewis & Haden Equity Partners.
Parsons had more than $3 billion in sales in 2013.