Last week Guidehouse announced it had completed its acquisition of Navigant Consulting, Inc. The combined organization will operate under the Guidehouse name, and it will be led by Scott McIntyre, the company’s CEO, along with practice team leaders from both companies. Guidehouse, which is a portfolio company of Veritas Capital and headquartered in Washington, D.C, is a provider of management consulting services to government clients.
It offers broad capabilities in management, technology and risk consulting, and works with clients to address challenges with a focus on markets and clients facing transformational change, technology-driven innovation and regulatory pressure. With the close of this acquisition, the combined company now employs more than 7,000 people across 50 locations.
The merger with Veritas Capital will further allow Guidehouse to create a unique consultancy in both regulated commercial end markets and in the public sector that regulates those end markets. Moreover, it allows the company to have a significantly deeper expertise in the services it offers to clients across both the commercial and government sectors. This includes highly regulated industries of healthcare, financial services, energy, national security and aerospace & defense.
“We are delighted to welcome all of our colleagues from Navigant,” said Scott McIntyre, CEO of Guidehouse via a statement.
“Their significant commercial market expertise in healthcare, energy, and financial services complement the public sector strengths of Guidehouse, creating a new type of consultancy focused on driving cross-market advancements,” added McIntyre. “Together we will serve our clients with distinction around the world, helping them address their most difficult challenges and identify their most promising opportunities in order to set a national agenda and drive global change. Increasingly, solutions to complex societal problems will require integrated problem solving between government and commercial entities. Guidehouse, with our combination of public and private sector expertise, is at the forefront of the emerging model of professional services that can address this new market opportunity.”
government + industry = Stronger portfolio
The merger of these two consulting-based businesses should provide greater synergy in how Guidehouse now works with its government clients, as well as related industry partners.
“Clients will benefit from the combination of our global scale, as well as the deep sector knowledge our people bring to engagements every day,” a Guidehouse spokesperson told ClearanceJobs, via an email.
The transaction will also bring together two firms with complementary expertise.
“For example, Guidehouse’s previous work with financial regulators will be augmented by Navigant’s decades-long work with financial institutions on the commercial side,” added the Guidehouse spokesperson. “We anticipate similar opportunities in healthcare and energy, where the respective legacy clients will gain access to specialized solutions and expertise. Our combined company is at the forefront of an emerging model solving complex problems that stretches across government and private companies; we are on the cutting edge of the consulting profession.”
In addition, this merger could result in new opportunities for the company as it expands or otherwise strengthens the services it offers. As an example, Navigant’s long-standing success in helping hospitals and health systems operate more efficiently could create emerging offerings for its existing public sector clients.
“The former Navigant specialized in working in heavily regulated industries like utilities, healthcare, and financial services. The combined know-how – along with the technology and analytics expertise previously resident in Guidehouse – will allow the firm to create unique solutions for our clients,” explained the Guidehouse spokesperson. “We are uniquely positioned to expand our public sector offerings by applying commercial consulting methodologies and solutions to public sector clients, and in many respects the reverse will be true.”
The transaction was announced on August 2, 2019 and received approval from Navigant shareholders on October 10, 2019. Under the terms of the agreement, Navigant shareholders will receive $28.00 in cash for each share of Navigant common stock they hold. As a result of the completion of the transaction, shares of Navigant common stock were removed from listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), with trading in Navigant shares suspended prior to the opening of business on October 11, 2019.
