We shift our focus this week back to GovCon’s merger-and-acquisition environment with one new deal to digest and a second that has brought the purchaser a new landmark contract award.

Fairfax, Virginia-based technology services contractor ManTech International added to its reputation for capability-based buys via the purchase of a cyber business from Oceans Edge, a wireless technology and engineering services provider headquartered in Reston.

This deal adds footprints among some Cyber Command components to ManTech as the company seeks to grow what cyber group president Bill Varner called a “presence with customers who are critical to our nation’s future cyber operations and cyber defense.”

Announced mid-week, the transaction represents ManTech’s third in 14 months in a spree that includes the $34 million pickup of project management services provider Welkin Associates from then-owners CSC and the acquisition of cyber advisory firm Knowledge Consulting Group.

As ManTech stated intent through the Oceans Edge deal, another GovCon firm’s acquisition started to show signs of return-on-investment after the Air Force announced a CACI International business unit as the winner of a potential seven-year, $445.9 million satellite network support contract.

The official name of the “CAMMO” awardee is L-3 National Security Solutions, a business unit that changed hands in February after CACI purchased NSS for $550 million.

CAMMO is a consolidation of three predecessor contracts into one, under which CACI will help the Air Force operate the service branch’s main satellite control network.

M&A deals move markets unlike any other action and continue to be a prime topic of conversation among GovCon leaders and investors with a particular interest in that sector.

Lead Executive Mosaic reporter Ross Wilkers discussed the M&A landscape in GovCon and trends behind deals in a segment for the re-launched “Government Matters” program that airs Monday-to-Friday at 8 p.m. and again at 11 p.m. on NewsChannel 8, plus Sundays from 10:30 a.m. on WJLA Channel 7.

Tune into NC8 tonight or set your DVR to record from 8 p.m. or 11 p.m. to view the full conversation between Wilkers and new “Government Matters” host Francis Rose, plus bookmark the show’s web site to see that segment and others of relevance to the federal community.

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