Profile

Leidos, formerly known as Science Applications International Corporation , is an American Defense, Aviation, Information Technology , and Biomedical Research company headquartered in Reston, Virginia, that provides scientific, engineering, systems integration, and technical services. Leidos merged with Lockheed Martin's IT sector in August 2016 for Information Systems & Global Solutions business 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 a defense sector . Leidos works extensively with the United States Department of Defense , the United States Department of Homeland Security, and the United States Intelligence Community, including the NSA, as well as other U.S. government civil agencies and selected commercial markets. The company was founded by J. Robert "Bob" Beyster in 1969 in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, as Science Applications Incorporated . Beyster, a former scientist for the Westinghouse Atomic Power Division, and Los Alamos National Laboratory who became the chairman of the Accelerator Physics Department of General Atomics in 1957, raised the money to start SAI by selling stock he had received from General Atomics, combined with funds raised from the early employees who bought stock in the young enterprise.