The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site earlier on Tuesday that the sale price likely would be $2 billion.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Carlyle Group <CYL.UL> is in talks to buy Booz Allen Hamilton's government consulting business, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site earlier on Tuesday that the sale price likely would be $2 billion.
Discussions have been going on for the past couple of months, the source said.
Booz Allen and Carlyle officials were not immediately available for comment.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Booz Allen has talked with other private equity firms as part of a debate over the company's future, the Journal reported.
The deal would be important to the Pentagon, the intelligence community, lawmakers and defense firms, the Journal also said.
It described Booz Allen as a major player in some of the most costly and complex defense projects, and said it has government contracts totaling more than $2 billion a year with the Pentagon, intelligence services and civilian agencies including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
(Reporting by Robert Macmillan; Editing by Valerie Lee)
