War- What is it Good For?

A killing, as predicted.

And business just keeps growing lately.

...Carlyle Managing Director Glenn A. Youngkin, who put together the Qinetiq deal and has sat on the company board since 2003, convinced Qinetiq's managers that the real opportunity was not in the private sector, but in the U.S. government market, where federal agencies were spending hundreds of billions on new technologies for homeland defense and high-tech warfare.

So Qinetiq went on a shopping spree, buying four U.S. companies in three years that do business with defense, intelligence and civilian government agencies here. Its most recent deal was last year's $288 million purchase of McLean systems contractor Apogen Technologies Inc.

The same acquisition strategy has been pursued by other large defense and technology companies, such as fellow British contractor BAE Systems and Falls Church-based General Dynamics Corp., in a buying binge that made dozens of owners of small and mid-size technology contractors rich in recent years.

About $600 million of Qinetiq's $1.5 billion in 2005 revenue came from the U.S. defense market. Carlyle and Qinetiq executives say that the company's U.S. growth, and the growing profitability of its British and European operations, account for what has been a quick and large rise in Qinetiq's value -- from an estimated $870 million when Carlyle acquired its interest three years ago, to around $2.3 billion when shares began trading on Friday...

Carlyle sold Qinetiq stock worth $281 million in Friday's offering, earning four times its initial investment right off the bat. Further, Carlyle still owns stock worth nearly $300 million. That makes nearly an 800 percent return...

War is very good business for some.

It always has been.