Science Applications International Corporation
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| Science Applications International Corporation | |
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| Type | Public (NYSE: SAI) |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Headquarters | La Jolla, California, USA |
| Key people | Ken Dahlberg (CEO) Dr. J. R. Beyster (Founder) |
| Industry | Defense contractor |
| Employees | approximately 44,000 |
| Website | www.saic.com |
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) NYSE: SAI is a FORTUNE 500® scientific, engineering and technology applications company in the United States that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world in the areas of National Security, Energy and the Environment, Critical Infrastructure, and Health. It was founded by Dr. J. Robert "Bob" Beyster in 1969 in La Jolla, California, as Science Applications Incorporated.[1] As of 2008, SAIC employed 43,800 employees in 150 cities worldwide and reported $8.9 billion in revenue for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2008,[2] making it number 285[3] on the Fortune 500 list.
SAIC is a large technology firm with numerous federal, state, and private sector clients, and works extensively with the United States Department of Defense, the United States Department of Homeland Security, and the United States Intelligence Community, including the National Security Agency, as well as other U.S. Government civil agencies and selected commercial markets. In fiscal year 2003, SAIC did over $2.6 billion in business with the United States Department of Defense, making it the ninth largest defense contractor in the United States. Other large contracts include their lead on a contract for information technology for the 2004 Olympics in Greece[4] and from 2001 to 2005, SAIC was the primary contractor for the FBI's failed Virtual Case File project.[5]
Dr. Beyster founded SAIC on the principles of employee ownership: that those who care about the value of a company (the shareholders) should be the same as the people responsible for producing that value (the employees). On November 3, 2003, Kenneth C. Dahlberg was named the CEO of SAIC, ending Beyster's 30+ years of leadership. In May 2005, under the new CEO, the company changed its external tagline from An Employee-Owned Company to From Science to Solutions, retaining the former for internal communications.
The company has had as part of its management and on its Board of Directors many well known public servants, including Melvin Laird, Secretary of Defense in the Nixon administration; William Perry, Secretary of Defense for Bill Clinton; John Deutsch, President Clinton's CIA Director; Admiral Bobby Ray Inman who served in various capacities in the NSA and CIA for the Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations; and David Kay who led the search for weapons of mass destruction for the U.N. following the 1991 Gulf War and for the Bush Administration following the 2003 Iraq invasion.
In June 2001 the FBI paid SAIC $122 million to create a virtual case file system or VCF – software to speed up the sharing of information among agents. But the FBI abandoned VCF when it failed to function adequately. Robert Meuller, FBI Director, testified to a congressional committee, “When SAIC delivered the first product in December of 2003 we immediately identified a number of deficiencies – 17 at the outset. That soon cascaded to 50 or more and ultimately to 400 problems with that software ... We were indeed disappointed.”
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[edit] Initial Public Offering
SAIC conducted an initial public offering of common stock on 13 October 2006. The IPO raised US$1.7 billion. After the proposed IPO, existing employee-owners would retain between 80 percent and 90 percent of the new company, meaning that the employee ownership would be substantially preserved.[citation needed]
On September 27, 2006, during a special meeting of stockholders, employee-owners voted by a margin of 86% to proceed with the IPO. The initial stock price is estimated at $13-$15 per share, with a public offering of 75 million shares. If the underwriters, Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley, exercise overallotment options, an additional 11.25 million shares will be offered. The company also plans to pay a special dividend to existing stock holders upon completion of the IPO of $1.6 billion to $2.4 billion.
[edit] Operations
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) transitioned a Remote Viewing Program to SAIC in 1991 and it was renamed Stargate Project.
In January 1999, new SAIC consultant Steven Hatfill and his collaborator, SAIC vice president Joseph Soukup, commissioned William C Patrick (a retired leading figure in the old US bioweapons program) to report on the possibilities of terrorist anthrax mailings in the United States. (There had been a spate of hoax anthrax mailings in the previous two years.) Barbara Hatch Rosenberg said that the report was commissioned "under a CIA contract to SAIC". However, SAIC said Hatfill and Soukup commissioned it internally — there was no outside client.
Patrick produced his 28-page report in February 1999. Some subsequently saw it as a "blueprint" for the 2001 anthrax attacks. The report suggested the maximum amount of anthrax powder -- 2.5 grams -- that could be put in an envelope without producing a suspicious bulge. This was just a little more than the actual amounts -- 2 grams each -- in the letters sent to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. But the report also suggested that a terrorist might produce a spore concentration of 50 billion spores per gram. This was only one-twentieth the actual concentration -- 1 trillion spores per gram -- in the letters sent to the Senators.[6]
In 2002, SAIC was chosen by the NSA to produce a technology demonstration platform for the agency's Trailblazer program in a contract worth $280 million. Trailblazer is a 'Digital Network Intelligence' system, intended to analyze data carried on computer networks. Project participants included Boeing, Computer Sciences Corporation, and Booz Allen Hamilton. SAIC had also participated in the concept definition phase of Trailblazer, beginning March 2001.[7] According to science news site PhysOrg.com, Trailblazer was a continuation of the earlier ThinThread program.[8] In 2005 NSA director Michael Hayden told a Senate hearing that the Trailblazer program was several hundred million dollars over budget and years behind schedule.[9]
[edit] Subsidiaries
- bd Systems
- Bechtel SAIC Company, LLC, a joint venture between SAIC and Bechtel
- Benham, a subsidiary of SAIC and its subsidiaries
- Danet
- Eagan, McAllister Associates, Inc a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC under the C4I business unit.
- Hicks & Associates
- SAIC-Frederick, Inc.
- SAIC International Subsidiaries
- SAIC Venture Capital Corporation
- Varec
- Applied Marine Technology Corporation, A SAIC Operation
- EAI Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary
[edit] SAIC India Presence
SAIC has its development center in Delhi and Bangalore. Scicom Technologies Noida was acquired by SAIC in September 2007.
[edit] Former subsidiaries
AMSEC LLC, a business partnership between SAIC and Northrop Grumman subsidiary Newport News Shipbuilding divested on 13 July 2007.[citation needed] Network Solutions was acquired by SAIC in 1995,[10] and subsequently was acquired by VeriSign, Inc. for $21 billion.[11]
[edit] References
- ^ Dr. J. Robert Beyster with Peter Economy, The SAIC Solution: How We Built an $8 Billion Employee-Owned Technology Company, John Wiley & Sons (2007) p.xiii
- ^ Company Overview. SAIC Web Site. Retrieved on April 17, 2008.
- ^ SAIC Ranks Among Highest Revenue Businesses. SAIC Web Site. Retrieved on August 13, 2006.
- ^ After Olympics contractors leave behind IT legacy. Washington Technology. Retrieved on August 13, 2006.
- ^ The FBI's Upgrade That Wasn't. Washington Post. Retrieved on February 8, 2007.
- ^ William J Broad, "Terror Anthrax Linked to Type Made by U.S.", New York Times, 3 December 2001; Barbara Hatch Rosenberg (director of the Federation of American Scientists' biochem weapons working group), "Analysis of the Anthrax Attacks" (copy); Guy Gugliotta and Dan Eggen, "Biological Warfare Experts Questioned in Anthrax Probe", Washington Post, June 28, 2002 (UCLA copy); Brian Ross, "Blueprint for Anthrax Attack", ABC News online, 27 June 2002; Marilyn W Thompson, "The Pursuit of Steven Hatfill", Washington Post, 14 September 2003, p.W06.)
- ^ Patience Wait. "SAIC team gets demonstration phase of Trailblazer", Washington Technology, October 21, 2002.
- ^ NSA datamining pushes tech envelope. PhysOrg.com (May 25, 2006)..
- ^ Martin Sieff (August 18, 2005). NSA's New Boss Puts Faith In Hi Tech Fixes. Space War.
- ^ Science Applications International Corporation vs. Comptroller of the Treasury. txcrt.state.md.us. Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
- ^ Company History. networksolutions.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
[edit] Links
- Official website
- SAIC India
- IPO Information
- Dr. J. Robert Beyster's blog
- Foundation for Enterprise Development
- The SAIC Solution: How We Built an $8 Billion Employee-Owned Technology Company (ISBN 978-0470097526)
- Remote Viewing Operation
- IPO Approval Press Release
- SAIC's SEC filings
- National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO)
- Project for Government Oversight Report on SAIC Lobbying records and lists of ex-government SAIC employees.
- Coverage of SAIC Iraq Single-source contracts
- SourceWatch article
- Washington's $8 Billion Shadow (Vanity Fair Magazine, March 2007)
- PBS 10/07/07 episode of Expose on SAIC
