Leidos Deal Closes, Spawning Vast Solutions Enterprise (From Forbes)

On Tuesday of this week, Leidos Holdings completed its acquisition of Lockheed Martin’s information systems and services unit, doubling in size to become a dominant player in the federal technology solutions business.  With $10 billion in sales and a diversified portfolio spanning defense, civil and commercial customers — all of them in heavily regulated markets — Leidos now can pursue pretty much any opportunity it finds appealing.  CEO Roger Krone stresses that the combination is less about scale than diversity, with the business mix shifting from being mainly in national security work to a nearly even split between security and civil/commercial.  Krone says he is real pleased with the quality of the workforce Leidos is assimilating and the leadership position that workforce has achieved with many customers.  He figures that Leidos’ addressable market has now increased to over $200 billion in potential sales annually, so the combined enterprise has plenty of room to grow.  I have written a commentary for Forbes here.