US 'web integrator' buys UK consultant

The invasion of the UK by US 'web integrators' has continued with the acquisition of The Fourth Room, a London-based marketing consultancy, by ebusiness-focused reseller US Interactive.

The invasion of the UK by US 'web integrators' has continued with the acquisition of The Fourth Room, a London-based marketing consultancy, by ebusiness-focused reseller US Interactive.

Piers Schmidt, chief executive of The Fourth Room, said: "US Interactive is a classic US ecommerce integrator."

Schmidt said such companies usually have three competencies: website design, infrastructure provision and business strategy consulting.

"Most US integrators have come to the UK by buying a web design company. US Interactive has started from the business consulting direction," he added.

Other ecommerce specialists fail by offering only website design and hosting, without being able to deliver a successful internet business to their customers, said Schmidt. "A more mature strategy-led approach is needed."

US Interactive has sent 10 employees from the US to set up the web design and web infrastructure elements of the company, and will grow either through local recruitment or another acquisition, said Schmidt.

In April, US web integrator Proxicom bought London-based consultant Clarity. Marchfirst, formed by the merger of US Web/CKS and IBM reseller Whittman-Hart, and Razorfish have also established a presence in the UK through acquisition.

Although The Fourth Room is US Interactive's first direct acquisition in Europe, in February it bought Softplus, a developer of web to legacy application integration software based in California. Now called US Interactive eVerticals division, it has offices in Hounslow.

First published in Computer Reseller News