Changing of the guard expected soon at Computer Sciences Corp.

William Hoover, longtime chairman and chief executive officer of Computer Sciences Corp., is expected to announce his retirement sometime this fall.

The announcement will signify a major change in leadership at the enigmatic El Segundo-based company that in its most recent fiscal year reported revenue of nearly $2.6 billion and forecasts growth to $3 billion this year.

Hoover, 64, is expected to turn over control of the company to Van Honeycutt, the 49-year-old current president and chief operating officer of the high-tech consulting company.

When Hoover does retire, it will mark an end of an era at the company that is generally considered one of the world's premiere consulting firms. In recent years, the 30,000-employee company has been moving away from government contracts and into the more public arena of commercial work, a trend that is expected to be institutionalized at CSC by Honeycutt.

Hoover, who has been chairman and CEO for 20 years, largely made the company through government work but Honeycutt's forte has been on the commercial side through marketing, said sources.

Hoover, who joined the fledgling business as a hot shot computer maven in 1964, has been grooming Honeycutt for the top spot since he was appointed president in 1993, according to sources who did not want to be named.

"It's generally accepted that Hoover's hand-picked guy is Honeycutt. Even though it's possible that Hoover might keep the position of chairman, the reins of the company will pass to Honeycutt, who's been working out of a single office with Hoover for some time now," said one source.

Company officials acknowledged the speculation but would not comment. They noted there is no mandatory retirement age at CSC and Hoover has said in response to the speculation inside the company that he will retire when he's ready.

Neither Hoover nor Honeycutt was available for interviews last week.

Even though it's a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange, CSC has remained largely an unknown quantity, except to its clients and financial analysts.

"They are a very strong company that has had some significant wins over competitors like IBM, EDS (Electronic Data Systems) and Andersen Consulting," said Alexander Paris, an industry analyst who follows the company at Barrington Research Associates in Barrington, Ill.

A company spokesman, Bruce Plowman, noted: "People don't know us because we haven't been in the commercial world and we don't make things that people can buy off a shelf. I think we'll become better known as we get more into commercial work."

Computer Sciences Corp.'s expertise is in providing information technology services. The company does consulting work, sets up high tech information systems and in some cases actually operates facilities for the federal government and private businesses.

Started in 1959 on the second floor of a bakery in Palos Verdes by Fletcher Jones and Roy Nutt -- two early computer whiz kids who are now deceased -- CSC's government-to-commercial ratio of work has been steadily shifting.

In 1986, more than 70 percent of the company's revenues were produced through contracts with the United States government. The figure is now about 55 percent government and 45 percent commercial.

Hoover built the company in the 1970s with government work and starting in 1986 moved it more into the commercial arena through acquisitions. Honeycutt, who has been with CSC since 1975 in various capacities on the commercial side, is expected to continue that trend, said one source who did not want to be named.

Since 1986, CSC has acquired 20 other commercial companies that had revenues ranging from $1.5 million to $170 million. The acquisitions have added about 7,500 employees to the CSC payroll.

But government contracts are still going to play a significant role in the company, said spokesman Plowman.

He noted that in May CSC won a contract from NASA that could be worth more than $1 billion in business over the next eight years. The contract, with a base period of two years and six, one-year options, is to operate information systems at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. CSC has contracts with several other NASA operations, as well as U.S. government departments like the General Accounting Office and the Pentagon.

Analysts note that Computer Sciences has shown tremendous growth in recent years and Honeycut will be hard pressed to keep up the pace.

In fiscal 1991, the company netted $62.8 million on revenues of $1.7 billion. In fiscal 1994, which ended April 1, net earnings had grown to $95.8 million on revenues of almost $2.6 billion.

In 1985, CSC stock was trading at about $13 a share. After a 3-to-1 stock split this past January, the stock is now trading at about $45 a share. Without the split, the stock would be trading in the $135 range.

Analysts note that another challenge for Hoover's successor will be expanding the overseas market. The company has contracts around the world but has concentrated on the U.S.

"I think it's a given that we're going to be looking more overseas. We're particularly interested in the Pacific rim countries," said Plowman.