Accenture Gets Big in Germany with Umlaut

/ June 15, 2021

Accenture made a big move with the acquisition of Umlaut, an ER&D vendor headquartered in Germany. The transaction comes as a surprise: umlaut brings EUR 350m in revenues. It is the first sizable acquisition that Accenture made for Industry X. Up to now

M&As: Many Tuck-In Acquisitions and Cognizant ESG

/ April 14, 2021

ER&D vendors continue to be very active in M&As, with many tuck-in acquisitions. AFRY is now in full acquisition mode with six transactions in 2021 YTD. Competitor Sweco has also accelerated with four transactions. Accenture has made an unusual transaction by taking over a manufacturer of industrial automation and robots in Brazil for Accenture Industry X. Finally, Cognizant acquired a significant German automotive ER&D vendor, ESG.

Capgemini Betting on Altran To Reach its New 2025 Financial Objectives

/ April 5, 2021

Capgemini unveiled its new financial objectives for the 2020-2025 period, of which Altran will play a significant part. The company now targets a 7 to 9% annual revenue growth at cc and an adjusted EBIT margin of 14% by 2025. Capgemini will reach revenues in the range of EUR 22.2-24.4bn by 2025 (from an estimated pro-forma EUR 16.3bn in 2020) and EUR 3.1-3.4bn in adjusted EBIT (from EUR 1.5bn in 2020).

Hitachi Buys GlobalLogic for USD 9.6bn. A Shock to the ER&D industry

/ March 31, 2021

The Hitachi USD 9.6bn acquisition of GlobalLogic was a shock to the engineering and R&D service industry. Hitachi values GlobalLogic 37.4x its calendar 2021 adjusted EBITDA. The multiple is very high, even for a firm of the quality of GlobalLogic. Only three years ago, Apax sold its 48% stake in GlobalLogic to Switzerland-based Partners Group. At the time, the transaction valued GlobalLogic USD 2bn. Back then, the USD 2bn valuation seemed in line with the Aricent and Luxoft respective acquisitions by Altran and DXC.

DXC Turns Down Atos’ Bid as Low

/ February 6, 2021

Unsurprisingly, DXC Technology turned down Atos’ offer to acquire the firm. DXC considered it, USD 10bn, as reported by Reuters, as too low. The company considers it is going through a turn-around. Also, 16 months into the job, DXC’s CEO, Mike Salvino, believed it was too early to sell the Tysons, VA-based firm.

With Softvision, Cognizant Is Building A New EPAM

/ January 26, 2021

In the past three years, Cognizant has been building Softvision as a new EPAM. Like EPAM, Softvision has grown very fast: Softvision 10-12k employees currently, from 2.8k employees at the time of its acquisition in late 2018.

UPDATED: Atos Approaches DXC in a USD 10bn Transaction

/ January 7, 2021

Following a Reuters news release, European IT services vendor Atos confirmed it had submitted to the Board of DXC an unsolicited non-binding offer to acquire the firm. The offer is at a preliminary stage. Reuters estimated Atos’ offer to USD 10bn.

NNIT Shows A Path to Growth in Pharma

/ November 11, 2020

We rarely talked about Denmark-based NNIT. The company is the former IT captive of Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk, thus the name NNIT, which stands for Novo Nordisk IT.

Wipro Acquires A Semiconductor Engineering Specialist

/ October 15, 2020

Wipro joined many competitors in acquiring a semiconductor engineering specialist. ER&D service vendors are rushing into this market, attracted by its long-term growth potential. Indeed, we estimate to ten the number of semi-conductor M&As since 2015. Altran, through the Aricent, GlobalEdge, and SciConTech transactions, has been the most acquisitive. However, all the industry’s brand names have been active, e.g., Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Alten, LTTS, and Cyient.

Accenture Strengthens Industry X in Supply Chain

/ October 7, 2020

Accenture made another acquisition for Industry X. The new firm acquired by Accenture is named Myrtle Consulting and is headquartered in Houston, TX. We estimate its headcount to below 200. It is a consultancy firm.

Accenture X Acquires A SCM SAP Specialist

/ September 16, 2020

Accenture made another acquisition for its Industry X unit. Salt Solutions is based in Würzburg, 80 miles away from Frankfurt, in Germany. It, also, has offices in Stuttgart, Dresden, and Munich. Salt is SAP-centric with a specialization in SCM and also capabilities around production systems, all around SAP.

Unofficial: Renault Selects its Four ER&D Preferred Vendors

/ July 24, 2020

According to unofficial sources, Renault has now finalized its list of preferred ER&D service vendors, reducing it from nine vendors to four. The four winners are Akka, Bertrandt, Expleo, and Segula. They will now grab 80% of Renault’s ER&D spending and double their market shares.

HCL’s ERS Manages Well the Downturn Thanks to its Balanced Client Base

/ July 20, 2020

HCL Tech reported good set numbers for its Engineering and R&D Services (ERS) business in Q1 FY21. Revenues were down by 5.1% at CC to USD 378m. The growth is mostly organic (CS) and only includes an estimated USD 5m in acquired revenues, resulting from the Sankalp acquisition. This positions ERS among the best-performing units this quarter.

Tuck-In Acquisitions Continue Despite the Stock Markets Melt-Down

/ March 11, 2020

Despite the stock market melt-down, ER&D vendors have continued to make tuck-in acquisitions in the past two weeks. The acquired firms were of small size and not likely to impact the net debt of their new owners. However, should the Covid-19-China-US trade-war-Stock Markets meltdown-oil price crisis degenerate into a recession, we expect suck tuck-in acquisitions to become scarce.

The Head of Tech Mahindra IES Becomes COO at Cyient

/ March 7, 2020

Karthik Natarajan, the former head of Tech Mahindra’s Integrated Engineering Services (IES), has joined Cyient as COO. We think, the appointment of Mr. Natarajan is a welcome move for Cyient, which has faced growth challenges in the past quarters, resulting from its client concentration and its exposure to Boeing and Pratt & Whitney.

Spotlight on EPAM Systems

/ February 23, 2020

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