There is a rather large corporation, Booz Allen Hamilton:
Booz Allen, which employs 24,500, had a net profit of $219 million on revenue of nearly $5.8 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31. For the same period ending in 2010, the year the company went public, the company earned $25 million on $5.1 billion in revenue.
We now know more about Booz Allen Hamilton than we ever hoped to know because of a chap named Edward Snowden.
Revenues of nearly $5.8 billion fiscal 2012 ... from whence?:
Soon after National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed himself Sunday, his employer, the government consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, released a statement labeling the leak "a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm."
The reason the company was so quick to distance itself from Snowden likely revolves around its close ties to the U.S. federal government. Roughly 99 percent of Booz Allen's revenue comes from the federal government, CNNMoney reports, and the company earned roughly $3.8 billion in government contracts as of 2012, according to Washington Technology, a trade publication for government contractors. Only seven companies garnered more money in government contracts that year.
Pretty impressive, hug? Kinda makes you want to know about BAH, like who owns it and stuff, who benefits. referring back to the WPO article above:
Carlyle collected nearly $550 million in dividends in 2009 alone. Last year, Booz Allen issued another special shareholder dividend valued at $765 million — most of which went to Carlyle investors.
Booz Allen went public in 2010, and Carlyle now owns 95.66 million shares — around 69 percent of the total shares outstanding — valued at about $1.66 billion at the current stock price.
Carlyle, that would be The Carlyle Group. Lots of interesting things are said about The Carlyle Group:
Carlyle has been profiled in two notable documentaries, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 and William Karel's The World According to Bush.
... Moore makes nine allegations concerning the Carlyle Group, including: That the Bin Laden and Bush families were both connected to the Group; that following the attacks on September 11, the bin Laden family’s investments in the Carlyle Group became an embarrassment to the Carlyle Group and the family was forced to liquidate their assets with the firm; that the Carlyle group was, in essence, the 11th largest defense contractor in the United States. Moore focused on Carlyle's connections with George H. W. Bush and his Secretary of State James A. Baker III, both of whom had at times served as advisers to the firm.
.... In his documentary The World According to Bush (May 2004), William Karel interviewed Frank Carlucci to discuss the presence of Shafiq bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's estranged brother, at Carlyle's annual investor conference while the September 11 attacks were occurring.
Zeitgeist The Movie makes similar claims that The Carlyle Group may have played a part in 9/11.
The Iron Triangle also talks about links with the Bin Laden family; the documentary makes claims that Carlyle bought political favor to get investment dollars and arms sales to the middle east.
OK. no claim to being fair and balanced, I'm just looking around and finding stuff. Like, directly from the horses mouth, who owns The Carlyle Group:
Carlyle is a publicly traded partnership, which began trading on the NASDAQ market under the CG ticker symbol on May 3, 2012. Carlyle has three groups of owners: employees of Carlyle who are equity partners, strategic investors Mubadala Development Company and CalPERS, and public unitholders.
Mubadala Development Company. What an interesting and exotic name!:
Mubadala is mandated to strengthen Abu Dhabi’s growth potential, and to help the Government meet its socioeconomic targets. While the company’s investments are designed to generate sustainable profits over the long-term, they also deliver strong social returns to Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates.
Focused on investment and development across multiple sectors, Mubadala’s portfolio is valued at more than US $55 billion. Mubadala is an active investor in sectors and geographies that hold exciting potential and tangible returns, working in partnership with a number of world-class organizations.
Oh, and "His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, is Chairman of the Board of Directors." One of those "
strategic investors", whatever that means.
Corporate or individual investors that add value to investments they make through industry and personal ties that can assist companies in raising additional capital as well as provide assistance in the marketing and sales process.