Titan Corporation

Titan Corporation was a United States–based company that started as a telecommunications defense contractor with its headquarters located in San Diego, California. It was acquired by L-3 Communications on June 3, 2005 for $2.65 billion and operated as the "Titan Group" of L-3 Communications thereafter. In early 2007, divisions using the Titan Group name were internally directed to discontinue use of the "Titan" moniker and were given new names.

History

The company was founded in 1981 by Gene W. Ray, who previously worked for 11 years as an executive for the Science Applications International Corporation. Originally known as Titan Systems, Inc, the company took on its final name in May 1985 upon merging with Electronic Memories & Magnetics for $26 million in stock. It went public in 1987. Titan specialized in providing information and communications products, solutions, and services for intelligence agencies and the federal government, including the Department of Homeland Security.

In 1997, Titan had a revenue of $171 million. In 1998, Titan announced that it would buy two companies, Visicom Inc. and Delfin Systems Inc., "for about $47.5 million in stock to expand its computer business."[1]

Like other defense companies, Titan diversified through a series of acquisitions over its lifetime, starting in 1988, and engaged in 10 from 2000 until its acquisition a few years later.

Legal controversies

In May 2004, Titan employee Adel Nakhla, an Egyptian-born American citizen, was terminated from his job after he admitted he held down inmates that were "nude, handcuffed to each other and placed in sexual positions" (as described by the Taguba Report).

Lockheed Martin Corporation announced that it has terminated the merger agreement with The Titan Corporation because Titan did not satisfy all the closing conditions on or before June 25, 2004. Under the terms of the amended merger agreement, either party could terminate the merger agreement if Titan either (i) had not obtained written confirmation from the Department of Justice that the investigation of alleged Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations was resolved as to Titan and the Department did not intend to pursue any claims against Titan; or (ii) Titan had not entered into a plea agreement on or prior to June 25, 2004, provided that the terminating party had not contributed to the failure to consummate the merger through a breach of its obligations in any material respect. Titan did not satisfy either requirement.

As a public military contractor, the company employed some of the personnel who were implicated in the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in 2004. Involving mostly Titan and CACI International employees, the U.S. Army "found that contractors were involved in 36 percent of the [Abu Ghraib] proven incidents and identified 6 employees as individually culpable".[3] None of these personnel were prosecuted.[3]

The company was in the process of being acquired by the Lockheed Martin Corporation, but the attempted merger fell through on June 26, 2004:

On March 2, 2005, the company admitted to illegally providing $2 million to the 2001 re-election campaign of President Mathieu Kérékou of Benin, and agreed to pay $28.5 million in fines and civil penalties.[4] Titan pleaded guilty and paid the largest penalty under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act up to that point for bribery and filing false tax returns.[5]

Titan Corp briefly partnered with SkyWay Communications[6] and owned stock in several other corporations related to SkyWay. SkyWay's former DC9 aircraft, N900SA, was captured in April 2006 with 5.5 tons of cocaine on board. Investigation of the cocaine bust by Mad Cow Morning News[7] led to the discovery that Titan had employed Makram Chams, a Lebanese national. Chams owned a Kwik-Check convenience store in Venice, Florida, where the biggest overseas money transfer to the 9/11 terrorists ($70,000 from the UAE) was sent, according to the testimony of FBI agents during the 9/11 Commission hearings.

former name	Titan Systems Inc.
type	Public
industry	Telecommunications (main)
founded	May 1981
founder	Gene W. Ray
defunct	June 3, 2005
fate	Acquired by L-3 Communications
hq location	3033 Science Park Road San Diego, California 92121-1199
revenue	$2.046525 billion
revenue year	2004
operating income	$7.0947 million
income year	2004
net income	-$38.397 million
net income year	2004
assets	$1.357766 billion
assets year	2004
equity	$348.080 million
equity year	2004
num employees	~12,000
num employees year	February 2005

History

Contracts received

Legal controversies

External links

References