Darwin Deason, who founded the IT servies provider in 1988, wants to take the company private and is offering a $6 billion buyout The founder and chairman of IT services provider Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) wants to take the company private for about $6 billion.Darwin Deason, who founded the company in 1988, on Tuesday joined with Cerberus Capital Management to acquire ACS. They are offering $59.25 per share in cash, a premium of 15.5 percent over the stock’s closing price on Monday, Deason said in a press release. The full price including debt would be about $8.2 billion, he said.ACS spokesman Kevin Lightfoot confirmed Deason had proposed the acquisition. ACS, based in Dallas, provides BPO (business process outsourcing) and other IT services to commercial and government clients.Deason would remain executive chairman of the company following the buyout, and the business would keep operating in accordance with its current practices, he said in the release. The workforce would stay in place, and ACS would continue providing services to its customers.Deason and Cerberus are ready to start negotiations with ACS’s board, or a special committee of its independent directors, and move quickly to seal the deal, they said. They don’t expect regulatory or other hurdles to keep them from a timely close. The partners are working with Citigroup Global Markets for financing. ACS is one of the world’s biggest computer services companies, along with Electronic Data Systems, IBM’s IBM Global Services division, and other providers. Early last year, the company said it had considered a private-equity buyout or recapitalization to boost shareholder value but rejected both plans. It was still looking at ways to boost value but had stopped considering a selloff.Tuesday’s proposal came amid reports of a possible private equity buyout of another high-tech company, Palm. In such deals, investors usually look at a company and determine if it can deliver a rate of return that’s greater than the cost of borrowing money for the acquisition, said analyst Casey Ryan of Nollenberger Capital Partners in San Francisco. These deals are “trendy” right now and tend to happen when financial institutions have a lot of money and are looking for better returns on it, he said.This story was updated on March 20, 2007 Technology Industry