Cerberus to Buy DynCorp for $1.5 Billion

New York Times ^ | 4/12/2010 | New York Times

[Severa]

DynCorp International, the private military contractor, said on Monday it has agreed to sell itself to Cerberus Capital Management for $1.5 billion, as the private equity industry continues to return to its core business of deal-making.

Cerberus will pay $17.55 a share for DynCorp, a 49 percent premium to Friday’s closing price of $11.75. DynCorp now has 28 days under a “go-shop” provision within the deal agreement to find a higher and better offer.

While DynCorp has continued to win new contracts from the federal government, it has also been the subject of controversy over the years for its assignments in Iraq.

“I believe that under this partnership with Cerberus, DynCorp International will be able to build on our extensive heritage and successful performance to continue to achieve our growth objectives,” William L. Ballhaus, DynCorp’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Importantly, this transaction is a major milestone for DynCorp International’s continued leadership in serving our customers and supporting U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives.”

[Severa]

Dyncorp employs quite a few people here in the area, including my husband. Of course, too soon to tell what kind of impact this will have on us...

[Jack Hydrazine]

Cerberus is also the multi-headed hound that guards the gate of Hades to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping. What a name for a company.

[Clock King]

[Jack Hydrazine]

I don’t see the connection. Clue me in.

[Clock King]

Bad joke on my part. In the PC Game, Cerberus is name of massive and shady interstellar corporation that specializes in “information” brokerage. They also perform a lot of special “research” projects, many unethical, but nothing provable in a court of law. They’ll deal in almost anything as long as it furthers their main goal: control.

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

My limited experience in this area did not turn out well. The company I was in was bought by a much larger defense contracting ‘holding company’. They took an agile, entrepreneurial, well-thought-of company and stifled it with controls, oversight, unrealistic goals, and endless meetings. The brand we had built was subsumed and lost by the New York cognoscenti.

Customers and employees fled.

I was outta there as soon as I could be.

And I am still pissed at the CEO of our company - who was retiring - he seemed to have it as a mission to get our company sold before he left.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Ahhh...now that makes sense. I haven’t ever played that game. Thanks for the info on it.

[CodeToad]

DynCorp was a good company when I was there 20 years ago. It had motivation and excellent DoD contracts.

[Erik Latranyi]

Cerberus was started by Stephen Feinberg, a true conservative who regrets the name chosen for his company.

Cerberus is not your typical private-equity company...it actually rehabilitates companies rather than slashing and selling off the choice assets like so many PE firms do these days.

Cerberus bought Chrysler because Feinberg is a big fan of US manufacturing ande wanted to show the world what would happen if you broke all the rules in the auto industry.

Unfortunately, the damage inflicted on Chrysler by Daimler was incredible, coupled with the collapse of the auto market in the US (17 million vehicles sold in 2007 versus 10 million sold in 2009), forced Cerberus to exit its ownership at a massive loss (thanks Obama!).

Cerberus is a good company worthy of Freeper support.

[Clock King]

The picture is of the “CEO” of Cerberus, called The Illusive Man. He is a billionaire recluse whose real name and identity are unknown by anybody. The character is voiced by Martin Sheen.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Sounds like Barry if I didn’t know any better.