Leidos Holdings, Inc. is an American defense company, aviation, information technology, and biomedical research company headquartered in Reston, Virginia, that provides scientific, engineering, systems integration, and technical services. Founded as Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Leidos merged with Lockheed Martin's IT sector, Information Systems & Global Solutions ( Lockheed Martin IS&GS), in August 2016 to create the defense industry’s largest IT services provider. The Leidos-Lockheed Martin merger is one of the biggest transactions thus far in the consolidation of the defense sector. Leidos contracts extensively with the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Intelligence Community, as well as other U.S. government agencies and select commercial markets.
Initially, the company's focus was on projects for the U.S. government related to nuclear power and weapons effects study programs. The company was renamed Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as it expanded its operations. Major projects during Beyster's tenure included work on radiation therapy for the Los Alamos National Laboratory; technical support and management assistance to the development of the cruise missile in the 1970s; the cleanups of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station after its major accident, and of the contaminated community of Love Canal; design and performance evaluation of the Stars & Stripes 87, the winning ship for the 1987 America's Cup; and the design of the first luggage inspection machine to pass new Federal Aviation Administration tests following the terrorist bombing of Pan American flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Contrary to traditional business models, Beyster originally designed SAIC as an employee-owned company. This shared ownership was accompanied by shared responsibility and freedom in business development, and allowed SAIC to attract and retain highly educated and motivated employees that helped the company to grow and diversify. After Beyster's retirement in 2003, SAIC conducted an initial public offering of common stock on October 17, 2006. SAIC - News & Media - "SAIC, Inc. Announces Closing of Initial Public Offering" . Investors.saic.com. Retrieved on August 17, 2013. The offering of 86,250,000 shares of common stock was priced at $15.00 per share. The underwriters, Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley, exercised overallotment options, resulting in 11.25 million shares. The IPO raised US$1.245 billion. Even then, employee shares retained a privileged status, having ten times the voting power per share over common stock.
In September 2009 SAIC relocated its corporate headquarters to their existing facilities in Tysons Corner in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, near McLean. "SAIC Moves Corporate Headquarters to McLean, Virginia"
In 2012 SAIC was ordered to pay $550 million to the City of New York for overbilling over a period of seven years on the CityTime contract. In 2014 Gerard Denault, SAIC's CityTime program manager, and his two accomplices within the city's government were sentenced to twenty years in prison for fraud and bribery related to that contract.
Before the split, Leidos employed 39,600 employees and reported $11.17 billion in revenue and $525 million net income for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2013, making it number 240 on the Fortune 500 list. In 2014, Leidos reported US$5.06 billion in revenue.
In August 2016, the deal to merge with the entirety of Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS) business came to a close, more than doubling the size of Leidos and its portfolio, and positioning the company as the global defense industry's largest enterprise in the federal technology sector.
In January 2020, Leidos purchased defense contractor Dynetics for approximately $1.65 billion. In May 2020 it purchased the Security Detection and Automation Systems division of L3Harris (notable for providing the detection screeners that all airport travelers pass through when flying).
As of December 2023, the company has 47,000 employees. In 2023, Leidos reported US$15.4 billion in revenue. It ranked 266 on the 2024 Fortune 500 list.
On March 4, 2025, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce placed 15 U.S. entities (including Leidos) on its export control list, barring the export of dual-use commodities to that business. In May, the Department of Homeland Security terminated for convenience its $2.4 billion cybersecurity services contract with Leidos.
In June 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) paid SAIC million to create a Virtual Case File (VCF) software system to speed up the sharing of information among agents. But the FBI abandoned VCF when it failed to function adequately. Robert Mueller, FBI Director, testified to a congressional committee, "When SAIC delivered the first product in December 2003 we immediately identified a number of deficiencies – 17 at the outset. That soon cascaded to 50 or more and ultimately to 400 problems with that software ... We were indeed disappointed."
In 2005, then-SAIC executive vice president Arnold L. Punaro claimed that the company had "fully conformed to the contract we have and gave the taxpayers real value for their money." He blamed the FBI for the initial problems, saying the agency had a parade of program managers and demanded too many design changes. He stated that during 15 months that SAIC worked on the program, 19 different government managers were involved and 36 contract modifications were ordered. "There were an average of 1.3 changes every day from the FBI, for a total of 399 changes during the period," Punaro said.
In 2011–2012, then-SAIC was among the 8 top contributors to federal candidates, parties, and outside groups with during the 2011–2012 election cycle according to information from the Federal Election Commission. The top candidate recipient was Barack Obama.
In 2018, Leidos donated to the Senate campaign of Cindy Hyde-Smith. However, after a video was released showing Hyde-Smith speaking fondly of participating in "public hangings", Leidos said the company would never have made the donation if it had known about the comment. During Hyde-Smith's 2020 re-election bid, Leidos again donated to her.
In 2022, it was revealed Leidos is embroiled in dual criminal investigations concerning potential foreign bribery and antitrust violations. In August 2023, the company received a grand jury subpoena from the Justice Department’s antitrust division related to three government contracts from 2021 and 2022, coinciding with heightened enforcement of antitrust laws by the Biden administration. Additionally, in September 2023, Leidos was served with a separate grand jury subpoena regarding possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, linked to activities within its international operations that were identified in late 2021. The company has stated that it is cooperating with the investigations and conducting its own internal reviews into both matters.
Leidos is facing scrutiny following the leak of internal documents reportedly stolen by hackers, believed to be linked to a previously disclosed breach of a Diligent Corp. system that Leidos utilized. The company is currently investigating the matter, which led to a more than 4% drop in its shares during after-hours trading. A spokesperson confirmed that the leak originated from a prior incident involving a third-party vendor and emphasized that it did not affect Leidos' network or sensitive customer data. The breach is thought to be connected to a 2022 hack of Diligent's subsidiary, Steele Compliance Solutions, which affected fewer than 15 customers, including Leidos. Diligent stated that it promptly notified impacted clients and took corrective actions following the incident.
Leidos is facing increasing scrutiny regarding its handling of sexual assault and harassment incidents at facilities operated for the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP). In a letter from House Science Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), the company was criticized for allegedly failing to address these serious issues adequately. This concern follows a 2021 National Science Foundation (NSF) report that highlighted pervasive problems of sexual misconduct in Antarctica. The committee accused Leidos of inaccurately reporting that it had received no sexual assault allegations and claimed that its employees were not fully cooperating with NSF investigators. Leidos has reported five allegations of sexual harassment and zero of sexual assault between May 2017 and April 2022, a claim that Lucas and Lofgren disputed, citing evidence of prior reports. The NSF has since implemented new measures to combat these issues through its Sexual Assault and Harassment Prevention and Response (SAHPR) program. The controversy has drawn attention to the broader challenges of addressing sexual misconduct in remote work environments, with advocacy groups like Ice Allies calling for more robust action since 2019.
As Leidos
Structure
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Former subsidiaries
Controversies
As SAIC
As Leidos
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