Washington DC-based private equity firm Arlington Capital Partners (Arlington) has completed the acquisition of the Government Solutions division of Black Box Corporation (BBOX).
Going forward, the business will operate independently as Tyto Athene, a full-service systems integrator and managed services provider of communications systems for Department of Defense and Civilian agency enterprise operations worldwide.
Tyto Athene will be led by the existing management team, including Jeff Murray, the current Senior Vice President of Black Box Government Solutions, as CEO. Chris Meilhammer has been appointed the Company’s COO, and Jason Alexander will continue to lead the Company’s service delivery teams as Vice President of Operations. In connection with the transaction, Arlington Capital partnered with the former CEOs of Black Box Corporation, Terry Blakemore and Mike McAndrew, who will join the Board of Directors.
Michael Lustbader, a Managing Partner at Arlington, says: “We have been very impressed with the management team and the differentiated solutions that the Company provides to their government clients as well as the Company’s ability to develop new technologies such as the Acuity Micro Data Center; we believe that this technology will successfully address a strategic gap at the edge of the information infrastructure of Tyto Athene’s clients. Additionally, we believe that the Company will benefit from a number of secular tailwinds that will allow it to continue its strong performance as the US government modernises its legacy IT infrastructure.”
“As an independent company dedicated to developing solutions to the increasingly complex information needs of our clients, Tyto Athene will have a greater level of flexibility to meet those needs,” says Jeff Murray. “Our stakeholders can rest assured that the Company is on sound financial footing, and that we will continue to provide our clients the services and solutions to meet their business and mission needs. Arlington has a successful history of building market-leading government services businesses and we are excited to partner with Arlington to form Tyto Athene.”
Gordon Auduong, a Vice President of Arlington, adds: “We are impressed with the Company’s proven past performance on highly-recurring managed services contracts, which provide the business with significant revenue visibility, as well as successful execution on large, multifaceted projects. We believe that Arlington can provide the strategic support and necessary investments to accelerate this exciting platform. We are looking forward to partnering with the management team to help them build Tyto Athene.”
