IT firm SAGE Black gets new owner

US information technology business Criterion Systems has completed its third acquisition of 2021 by purchasing SAGE Black Consulting & Contracting, which provides software development, data analytics, and other services to the US Intelligence Community (IC), Criterion announced on 28 September.

SAGE Black will become part of Criterion's new Intelligence Solutions business unit, which focuses on serving the IC. IT firms Protas Solutions and Realm Consulting, both of which Criterion acquired earlier this year, are also part of the new business unit.

The SAGE Black acquisition, combined with the Protas and Realm purchases, “provides Criterion with a deep bench of expertise that will benefit both our IC customers and the company as a whole”, Criterion co-founder and chief financial officer Steve Mast said.

Founded in 2005, SAGE Black is based in Vienna, Virginia, and has approximately 30 employees. It is named after the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, which was a computer network the United States built during the Cold War to fuse radar data. The ‘Black' refers to the company's work on classified programmes.

Criterion, which is also based in Vienna, has aproximately 500 employees following its recent acquisitions.