CSC Loses Another Executive Amid Buyout Talk

Computer Sciences Corp. on Wednesday announced the retirement of its vice president for human resources, the second significant executive move this month by the IT services vendor, which is widely believed to be a takeover target.

CSC said corporate human resources VP Frederick Vollrath is retiring and will be replaced by company veteran Nathan Siekierka, who had been overseeing HR at several of CSC's commercial outsourcing units. Earlier this month, CSC chief financial officer Lee Level stepped down, replaced by newcomer Michael Keane. In July, Paul Cofoni, who ran CSC's federal government practice, retired.

The executive reshuffling at CSC will doubtless add fuel to already widespread speculation that the company is close to a buy out by Lockheed Martin and private equity investors Blackstone Group, Warburg Pincus, and Texas Pacific Group. Jefferies & Co. analyst Joseph Vafi thinks there is "a good chance" that a deal may happen soon. The thinking is that a strong IT services arm could help a defense systems specialist like Lockheed Martin secure lucrative government work from agencies beyond the Department of Defense.