TNS Inc. / TNS

TNS provides data communications services for transactions like credit card processing. (Photo: Jacqueline Kazil - washingtonpost.com)
About TNS Inc.
11480 Commerce Park Dr., Suite 600, Reston, Va. 20191
www.tnsi.com
| 703-453-8300
| Founded: 1991
Industry: Information Technology | Category: Top 100 Companies
TNS may soon be under new — but familiar — ownership.
John J. McDonnell Jr. the company's founder and chief executive, is leading a group of executives that has offered to buy all of TNS's outstanding stock for $22 a share.
If accepted, the proposal would be the second time McDonnell has led an effort to buy back the company — after selling it once and taking it public twice.
In 2005, TNS's profit rose to $5.8 million from $5 million the previous year. Its revenue increased to $258.9 million from $249.1 million. But for the last two quarters of 2005, the company's results came in slightly below analysts' expectations, causing its stock to drop significantly.
Shares traded as high as $25.88 in September but by early this year dropped below $16. The $22-per-share management buyout offer was a premium of more than 30 percent over the stock's opening price on March 13, the day it was announced. Analysts said taking the company private would allow it to cut back on accounting requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance law.
McDonnell founded TNS — originally called Transaction Network Services — in 1990, took it public in 1994, sold it to PSINet Inc. in 1999 for $720 million, led a private-equity-backed effort to buy it back for $277 million two years later and took the company public again in 2004.
The company said a committee of independent directors has been set up to evaluate the offer, which depends on the executive group's ability to get financing for the deal.
2007 Financial Data
Total employees: 568 | Local employees: 326Company Leadership
| John J. McDonnell Jr. | Chairman and CEO |
| Raymond Low | President, international services division |
| Brian J. Bates | President and COO |
| Henry H. Graham Jr. | EVP and CFO |
| Alan R. Schwartz | EVP and general manager, financial services |
Source: Compensation data provided by Equilar, Inc..
|
Henry H. Graham Jr. Chief Executive Officer |
$4,090,200 Salary: $500,000 |
|
Raymond Low President |
$3,158,323 Salary: $425,000 |
Did You Know
TNS operates a vast telecommunications network that connects financial institutions with transaction sites, such as ATMs and retailers processing credit cards.