Military VARs Take Wall St.

Solution providers that focus on military projects, many of whom have seen an increase in work in the wake of the Bush administration's war on terrorism, are heading to Wall Street in an effort to find IPO success. The most recent is Anteon, which filed an S-1 in late December for an IPO to raise up to $230 million.

Anteon's move came only days after another government-focused solution provider, Integrated Defense Technologies, filed its own S-1 for an offering to raise up to $125 million.

Fairfax, Va.-based Anteon, which recorded $526 million in revenue for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2001, works with some 600 federal government clients. Its largest federal customer is the U.S. Navy, which recently awarded the company a $20.8 million IT services contract.

It looks like the two companies want to follow in the footsteps of public solution provider CACI International, which has seen its shares almost quadruple in value during the past year,from $11 per share in January 2001 to more than $41 per share last month.