Science Applications International Corporation

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Science Applications International Corporation

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	43000
Website	www.saic.com

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Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) NYSE: SAI was the largest employee-owned research and engineering firm in the United States. It was founded by Dr. J. Robert "Bob" Beyster in 1969 in La Jolla, California, as Science Applications Incorporated. As of 2006, SAIC employed over 43,000 employees and reported $7.8 billion in revenue^[1], making it number 285^[2] on the Fortune 500 list.

Although SAIC is a large technology firm with numerous federal, state, and private sector clients, its traditional expertise has been supporting the United States Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, including the National Security Agency. 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^[3] and from 2001 to 2005, SAIC was the primary contractor for the FBI's failed Virtual Case File project [1].

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.

[edit] Initial Public Offering

On September 1, 2005, SAIC announced that its Board of Directors had decided to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) of common stock worth in excess of 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.

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.

On October 11, 2006, MarketWatch reported that "IPO is expected to price late Thursday and trade on Friday." The IPO date would fall on 13 October 2006.