Once Again, War Is Good for Business
Once the uncool cousin to high-flying dot-coms, government contractors adopted a new swagger in 2001.</br></br>The industry continued a trend toward consolidation that strengthened already large companies going after ever-larger federal contracts. Nearly across the board, stock in such companies surged after Sept. 11.</br></br>An extreme example was CACI International Inc. of Arlington, the stock price of which nearly doubled before a 2-for-1 split in November.</br></br>Expectations for the sector are high. Before the terrorist attacks, the federal government was expected to spend $46.3 billion on information technology this fiscal year, which ends next September. Now, the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association predicts that federal spending on information technology will jump to $49 billion this fiscal year and reach $65 billion in fiscal 2007.</br></br>As the government focuses on homeland security, federal agencies are considering how to secure their computer networks and continue to offer more services to the public on the Internet.