NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 20:11 ET — Market closed
- BigBear.ai said it completed the $250 million cash acquisition of Ask Sage after the market close on Dec. 31.
- BBAI shares last traded around $5.40, down about 1.7%, with U.S. markets closed for New Year’s Day.
- Investors are watching early integration signals as U.S. markets reopen Friday.
BigBear.ai Holdings, Inc. said after the market close on Dec. 31 it completed its $250 million cash acquisition of Ask Sage, stepping up its push into secure generative AI for defense and intelligence customers. Chief executive Kevin McAleenan said the deal would “accelerate our vision of delivering mission-ready AI that customers can deploy with confidence.” Shares of BigBear.ai (BBAI) last traded at $5.40, down about 1.7%, after moving between $5.30 and $5.53 in the last session, with U.S. markets closed on Thursday for the New Year’s Day holiday. 1
The close of the deal puts execution front and center. Government agencies have moved cautiously on generative AI — systems that produce text or code — because they need tight controls around where data goes and how models behave.
Ask Sage markets tools designed to run large language models, the technology behind many chat-style systems, in secure and regulated environments. That is the core commercial bet: convert heightened interest in AI into repeatable, contract-backed spending.
For BigBear.ai, the price tag is large relative to its size, and investors tend to judge cash deals quickly. The focus now shifts to integration costs, cross-selling opportunities, and whether Ask Sage can smooth revenue that can swing with government contract timing.
BigBear.ai said Ask Sage supports more than 100,000 users across 16,000 government teams, along with hundreds of commercial organizations. The company said the combined platform is meant to help customers use AI while maintaining control over data sovereignty, model governance and security requirements.
Ask Sage’s pitch centers on “orchestration,” meaning software that coordinates which models run, where they run and how they connect to internal data. The press release also pointed to “agentic” capabilities — AI systems that can take multi-step actions toward a task, rather than answering a single prompt.
In a November filing tied to its quarterly results, BigBear.ai said Ask Sage was expected to deliver about $25 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025, a subscription-style metric for revenue expected to repeat, using a non-GAAP measure that excludes some items from standard accounting. The same filing said BigBear.ai expected full-year 2025 revenue of $125 million to $140 million and reported a cash balance of $456.6 million as of Sept. 30. It also showed third-quarter revenue fell 20% to $33.1 million, driven in part by lower volume on certain U.S. Army programs. 2
Investors will look for early evidence that Ask Sage’s revenue profile is more recurring than project-based, and whether it lifts margins as it scales. Any update on customer wins or expanded deployments in defense and other regulated markets will be closely watched.
The acquisition also puts BigBear.ai closer to firms that sell data and AI software into government and security agencies, including Palantir and C3.ai. Competition in that niche has intensified as agencies test “secure-by-design” approaches for deploying AI.
Before the next session on Friday, traders will watch whether BBAI holds above the $5.30 low from the last session and whether it can retake $5.53, the session high. The stock’s recent range underscores how quickly sentiment can turn in smaller AI-linked names.
Macro attention on Friday includes U.S. manufacturing readings due at 9:45 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. ET, which can influence risk appetite early in the session. Next week, the U.S. jobs report for December is scheduled for Jan. 9, according to the Labor Department’s calendar. 3
On the company calendar, BigBear.ai has a reconvened special meeting of stockholders scheduled for Jan. 22, according to its investor relations site. Analysts tracked by Public.com expect the company’s next earnings report around March 5, though dates can shift, and investors will look for any first read on Ask Sage’s contribution by then. 4
