A federal judge in Maryland declined to halt Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp’sBAH acquisition of a competing cybersecurity company EverWatch, scoring a victory against the Department of Justice.
The judge ordered the two sides to report back on the next steps of the case.
Booz Allen in March moved to acquire EverWatch, a company it had been competing against to win a five-year contract to support the National Security Agency’s mission of collecting foreign communications, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The DOJ prosecuted in June, alleging that the acquisition would drive up prices for the U.S. government and create a monopoly supplier for critical national-security services.
Booz Allen is a government contractor that provides management and technology consulting services. EverWatch builds systems to defend against national cyber threats.
Booz Allen said at the time the DOJ filed its lawsuit in June that authorities were wrong about the deal, which the company said would benefit its government customers.
Cybersecurity stocks assumed growing importance since companies became targets of attacks as the world moved online. It also became a lethal weapon to win wars.
In September, Microsoft CorpMSFT security chief Charlie Bell highlighted the importance of innovation of machine learning algorithms for better cybersecurity solutions.
Price Action: BAH shares closed lower by 0.24% at $96.49 on Tuesday.
