Getronics in the PinkRoccade
Services firm acquires rival after another competitor withdraws bid
Dutch IT services firm Getronics strengthened its UK position last week with the €355m acquisition of rival PinkRoccade.
Plans for the acquisition were announced in November, but it was put on hold after rival firm Ordina revealed it intended to bid for PinkRoccade. A month later Ordina pulled out.
PinkRoccade announced profits of €739m in 2003 and currently employs 7,000 staff, 1,000 of whom are based in the UK. Its customers include T-Mobile and Southern Water.
In June 1999 Getronics bought US outsourcing firm Wang Global for €1.8bn. In March 2003 it announced a 13.4 per cent drop in profits and operating losses of €362m for the year ended 30 December 2002.
Dale Vile, service director at analyst Quocirca, said: "In the acquisition space, a lot of companies are being driven by the need to diversify. Companies such as Getronics need to broaden their skillsets and reach, and the acquisition will help them do this.
"Customers are demanding more solution-level sales and after-sales care. Many companies are geared up to deal only with the technology at component level. There's a lot more bundling and complete solution sales beginning to happen and this puts pressure on the reseller."
Getronics and PinkRoccade declined to comment.