Altegrity (USIS) Buys Kroll
An article in the Washington Post reported that Altegrity, a privately held Falls Church, VA company that provides security/screening services, will buy Kroll from Marsh & McLennan Cos. for $1.13 billion in cash.
Altegrity was started in 1996 when the federal government privatized the investigative branch of the Office of Personnel Management. The company began with 600 employees and was originally called U.S. Investigations Services. Among its first contract work were security clearance background investigations. It has grown to 8,000 employees across the U.S.
Altegrity does a range of contract work, mostly for the federal government, including security clearance investigations for the U.S. government and training and consulting for police departments in such places as Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq and Pakistan.
Kroll performs corporate investigations and security business and has 3,000 employees in 55 cities around the world. The deal for Kroll is expected to close in September. Altegrity’s CEO served as Kroll’s CEO from 2001 to 2004. The deal is expected to allow Altegrity to better compete against defense contractors on government service contracts.
Related articles: Investigators Consider Using Smartphones | USIS Hiring 200 Investigators
Comment Archive
Compete against govt contractors. Not a smart move in the days of “In Sourcing” by the government.
USIS is buying KROLL but what about KeyPoint Gov’t Solutions? They separated from KROLL.
EK INVESTIGATOR,
Keypoint is not part of the deal as Keypoint is stand alone and not part of Kroll anymore. Kroll is still around just not the government services side, which was investigators.
BW,
Is it a clear known fact from OPM that they plan to in-source significant portion of investigations? Do they have the budget and the capability to do so? And isn’t it much cheaper to outsource
BW, why do you believe government will in-source such a significant amount? Do they have the capability to replace all those contractors? Isn’t it cheaper to outsource?
34 Inv and MN
At anytime the govt can “In Source.” Do they have the capability? Yes–you bet they do. They can roll-over contractors into their roles or simply add less experienced staff and save money upfront. If you are wondering about us inv’s, the answer, in my opinion, is no–not all of us. I think the govt woulk love to eliminate all contractors, but this blows in with an administration and blows out during the next. Anyone who can do simple math can show it is clearly cheaper to keep contractors and much more efficient. We have to earn money to survive–they don’t. I’ll make a prediction–within a few years there will be a govt-wide reduction in force and they will return to the use of contractors across the entire spectrum of jobs. They simply can’t afford it. The long term projections with benefits and pensions will kill them. I will tell you in my area at least 60-70% of all contractors are already being converted, but not us–mainly DoD folks. I think we are safe if you work hard, but don’t slack as the words “Inherently A Govermental Process” is being thrown around about investigations. If it goes back to OPM, I will also predict it will once again take 2 or more years to be cleared–will not be OPM’s fault, but in my opinion, large govt workforces are somewhat lazy and non-productive. May not happen right away, but it will happen.
34 Investigator,
Missed one–it is a fact OPM will increase it’s workload capacity, but to what end, I’m not sure. I think, for now it would not be so extreme that we lose our jobs or anything of the kind. They do have a country-wide hiring push, but I believe alot of that is also due to attrition/retirements. And, yes it is cheaper to use contractors if for anything, our junior inv’s make squat in comparison to an OPM inv, who may be a GS-12 within a year, making more than 68k while ours make about 36k.
Getting hired by OPM as an investigator is altogether another story. Unless you are a veteran or a current or former fed, you will have a very difficult time making it into the category of people who will actually be interviewed.
Contract Inv
Vet status means nothing–I am a 20 year vet, served in 5 campaigns, supervised over 300 people at once and have disability and 26 years experience in the investigative realm and was passed over for someone with 4 years experience and no vet status. In my humble opinion, you are better served as a contractor. Their only advantage now is a pension, which is investment based. They appear to be hiring at low pay rates.
BW,
Wow. They probably didn’t want to pay you…
They are open for GS 11/12 right now in the DC area. I am assuming all those positions will go to the current feds moving up from the GS 9.
Contract Inv,
Usually the 12 positions are offered in many high priced areas that are hard to fill. Keep trying if it is what you want. If it is open to US Citizens, you should at least have a fighting chance. I think alot of the OPM folks are traveling alot and being forced to take a few overseas trips. Yeah it is nice in Europe, but with things being the way they are, not sure too much sightseeing could be accomplished.