Former Blackwater Changes Name Again

The security firm once known as Blackwater is changing its name again - this time from Xe Services to Academi - a move it hopes will reflect the changes the company has undergone.

The company has changed significantly in the last year. A new investor group, USTC Holdings, bought the company in December 2010. The former chief executive, Erik Prince, who aggressively defended Blackwater from accusations that its employees were trigger happy, has left the company. And earlier this year, it relocated its headquarters from North Carolina to northern Virginia, where a large number of security contractors are based.

Academi says its new name is based on Plato's Akademia, an institution it says developed its nation's best thinkers and warriors dating back to the third century B.C.