The security company that became so notorious for its violent scrapes in Iraq that it changed its name after being booted from the country now wants back in, rebranded with a new name meant to make it sound "boring."
Once called Blackwater, then Xe Services LLC, the company has changed its name and logo again, this time to Academi. The new name represents a new organization that's more focused on compliance and "openness," CEO Ted Wright, who joined the company in June, told CNN. It also comes as the company looks to move back into the expanded market for U.S. security contractors in Iraq as U.S. troops depart.
Iraq revoked the company's license to operate there after a Sept. 16, 2007 shootout in which 17 civilians died. It still works extensively for the U.S. government, but not in Iraq, a contract that once made up about a third of Blackwater's income, CNN reports.
A security expert The Wall Street Journal interviewed said the regulatory climate will likely change in Iraq as U.S. forces leave, and the company now called Academi will have a better shot at a contract there as the State Department hires a "fairly large contingent of people that will be doing a variety of things."
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