SALINA — Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) had partnered with Systems Made Simple in the past and was “well aware” of the company and its strengths, expertise, and employees before making the deal to acquire it. Salina–based Systems Made Simple, which provides health-information technology (IT) products to the federal government, is “no stranger” to firms […]
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SALINA — Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) had partnered with Systems Made Simple in the past and was “well aware” of the company and its strengths, expertise, and employees before making the deal to acquire it.
Salina–based Systems Made Simple, which provides health-information technology (IT) products to the federal government, is “no stranger” to firms that compete in that sector, says Horace Blackman, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for health & life sciences.
Both Blackman and Al Nardslico, chairman and president of Systems Made Simple, spoke with the Business Journal News Network in a conference call on Nov. 3.
“They’re no stranger to us and have not been strangers to us for quite some time,” says Blackman, who spoke on the conference call from Rockville, Md.
Bethesda, Md.–based Lockheed Martin, which has a plant in Salina employing about 1,600 people, announced on Oct. 30 its agreement to acquire Systems Made Simple.
Lockheed didn’t disclose any financial terms of the deal in its news release.
The discussions on a possible acquisition “began to intensify” in the last few months, says Blackman.
“It was not a hard decision to come to that got us to this point,” he adds.
Systems Made Simple is headquartered at 149 Northern Concourse in Salina. It employs about 25 people at its offices in Salina, says Nardslico.
They’re among a total of more than 500 employees in offices located in McLean and Charlottesville, Va.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Tampa, Fla.; and Austin, Texas.
“The opportunity to join a world-class engineering firm like Lockheed Martin was really something that was very exciting to me,” says Nardslico, who spoke on the conference call from Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Lockheed Martin expects the acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, to close within 30 days.
Once the transaction closes, Systems Made Simple will be part of Lockheed’s information systems & global solutions business area. Lockheed’s current Salina plant is in its mission systems & training division.
“Systems Made Simple will exist within Lockheed Martin as Systems Made Simple, a Lockheed Martin company,” says Blackman.
With its operations as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, Nardslico plans to remain with the firm as president of Systems Made Simple, he says.
What the acquisition will do
Lockheed Martin believes the acquisition will broaden its capabilities across the spectrum of health IT operations, including development of sophisticated IT architecture for complex organizations to delivering custom applications designed to increase patient access and improve the overall patient experience, the company said in its news release.
It will also expand Lockheed Martin’s relationship with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), for which it provides IT-enabled disability case-management services for veterans.
Technology is “rapidly transforming” the health-care landscape in the U.S. and is “critical” to reducing costs and improving patient care, Marillyn Hewson, chairman, president, and CEO of Lockheed Martin, said in the Oct. 30 news release.
“Systems Made Simple’s capabilities in engineering health-technology solutions are a natural extension of our existing health IT portfolio, and will enable us to deliver a broader portfolio of capabilities to meet our healthcare customers’ current and future needs,” said Hewson.
Systems Made Simple says it delivers technology and service products to “improve, increase, enable and ensure the secure exchange and interoperability of information between patients, providers and payers.”
The company performs “significant” work with the VA in areas such as health-data analytics, data-center operation, health-data management, and health-system interoperability.
Systems Made Simple operates in the “fastest growing” part of the U.S. federal IT budget and was selected for the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology (T4) contract that supports the VA’s IT modernization initiatives, a contract with which Lockheed Martin is not currently involved.
The local firm’s performance on the T4 was “certainly a factor” in Lockheed Martin’s pursuit of the acquisition, says Blackman.
“This is a company that has a history of performing exceptionally well in the work that they do,” he adds.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
