Asgn Acquires Government IT Contractor for $85 Million

Asgn Inc. in Calabasas announced Monday the acquisition of Blackstone Federal, a subsidiary of Blackstone Technology Group that does contract work for the Department of Homeland Security. The deal closed for $85 million. Blackstone Federal was founded in Arlington, Va., in 2002. It comprises around 100 technical consultants who provide application development, cloud systems architecture, cybersecurity, user experience design and branding services to government clients. The group generated about $44 million in revenue in 2019 and is expected to grow more than 10 percent year over year, according to a press release from Asgn. It now joins Asgn’s ECS division where it will provide enterprise information technology solutions to federal customers. Asgn Chief Executive Ted Hanson called the Blackstone Federal team an “excellent addition,” and said the buyout will further enhance his company’s solutions. “This acquisition fits perfectly with Asgn’s hybrid growth and capital allocation strategy, to scale ECS to over $1 billion in revenue through a combination of strong organic growth and complementary acquisitions,” Hanson said in a statement. In connection with the closing of the deal, Asgn will grant employment inducement awards in the form of stock grants to seven unnamed Blackstone Federal employees. The grants, totaling 31,000 shares, will vest one-half on the second anniversary of the grant date and an additional 25 percent on each of the the third and fourth anniversaries of the grant date. Shares of Asgn Inc. (ASGN) closed Monday down 49 cents, or less than 1 percent, to $68.85 on the New York Stock Exchange.