Titan Corporation

Titan Corporation
Company type	Public
Industry	Telecommunications, Defense
Founded	1981
Founder	Gene W. Ray
Defunct	2005
Fate	Acquired by L-3 Communications
Headquarters	San Diego, California, United States
Area served	United States, Worldwide
Key people	Gene W. Ray (founder)
Products	Information and communications solutions, language services, medical product sterilization technologies
Number of employees	12,000 (2003)
Parent	L-3 Communications (from 2005)

Titan Corporation was a telecommunications defense contractor based in the United States, with its main office located in San Diego, California. On June 3, 2005, L-3 Communications acquired the company for $2.65 billion. Following the acquisition, Titan operated as the "Titan Group" within L-3 until early 2007, when the use of the Titan brand was discontinued.

History

Established in 1981 by Gene W. Ray, who previously held an executive position at Science Applications International Corporation, the company initially operated under the name Titan Systems, Inc. It adopted the Titan Corporation identity in May 1985 after completing a $26 million stock merger with Electronic Memories & Magnetics. Titan went public in 1987 and focused on delivering information and communications solutions to intelligence agencies and federal entities, including the Department of Homeland Security.

By 1997, Titan's revenues had grown to $171 million. The following year, it expanded its computing division by acquiring Visicom Inc. and Delfin Systems Inc., paying roughly $47.5 million in stock. Beginning in 1988 and intensifying after 2000, Titan pursued a strategy of diversification through multiple acquisitions to counterbalance declining defense budgets and to venture into commercial sectors.

After the events of September 11, Titan expanded into language services by acquiring BTG Inc., which had held a $10 million military contract since 1999. The War on Terror substantially increased demand for its linguistic capabilities and associated contracts. After being acquired by L-3 Communications, several former Titan executives moved on to lead Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, another firm focused on growth via acquisitions.

In addition to defense-related activities, Titan broadened its technological scope by entering medical product sterilization in 1992 and developing electronic pasteurization and irradiation technologies for ground beef in 1999.

Contracts received

In 2003, Titan earned $112.1 million from U.S. military contracts for translation services, accounting for approximately 6% of its total revenue that year. The company employed around 12,000 personnel worldwide and generated nearly $2 billion in annual revenue while being publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker TTN.

Among its contracts, Titan secured $54.8 million to support development of the Airborne Warning and Control System spy plane and held an $18 million agreement to design war games for the U.S. Navy.

On January 12, 2005, Titan was awarded a competitive contract valued up to $163.9 million from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command for the Joint Task Force Civil Support. This contract involved providing planning, analysis, exercises, and IT support related to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High-Yield Explosive (CBRNE) Consequence Management operations.

On February 14, 2006, Titan announced it had received a five-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) task order contract worth $350 million from the Department of Homeland Security to support its National Exercise Program.

Legal controversies

Personnel employed by Titan were implicated in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal of 2004. Contractors accounted for 36% of confirmed abuses; six employees were identified as responsible but none faced legal prosecution. Among them was Adel Nakhla, a Titan employee who was dismissed after admitting to restraining detainees under degrading conditions.

A proposed acquisition of Titan by Lockheed Martin collapsed on June 26, 2004. Lockheed Martin withdrew from the merger due to Titan’s failure to meet closing requirements amid ongoing Department of Justice investigations into alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

On March 2, 2005, Titan acknowledged illegally channeling $2 million to support Benin President Mathieu Kérékou’s re-election campaign in 2001 and agreed to pay $28.5 million in fines and civil penalties. This settlement represented the largest FCPA penalty at that time related to bribery and falsifying tax documents.

Titan briefly collaborated with SkyWay Communications and held shares in affiliated companies. In April 2006, a former SkyWay DC9 aircraft was seized carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine. Investigations revealed that Titan employed Makram Chams, who was connected to a Venice, Florida convenience store involved in substantial international money transfers tied to the 9/11 terrorists according to FBI testimony during the 9/11 Commission hearings.

External links

Datron Advanced Technologies, the entity that succeeded Titan.