Spain is providing rich pickings for debis Systemhaus GmbH at the moment, with its second acquisition in less than a week. The IT services unit of automotive giant DaimlerChrysler has bought Madrid-based SAP specialist Grupo Sola & Asociados for an undisclosed amount.
The move will help to strengthen debis Systemhaus’ SAP practice which it hopes will number 1,500 consultants by the year end. Sola, which was set up in 1982, concentrates on the manufacturing, telecommunications, media and retail industries, mainly in Spain but also in Portugal and South America. It has three subsidiaries – Aeren SL, Softiber SL and Ambra Consulting SL. Sola is expected to add around 6m euros ($6.5m) in revenue to debis Systemhaus in 1999 up from about 4.1m euros ($4.4m) last year. Sola currently has 115 employees.
The Sola purchase comes less than a week after debis Systemhaus bought a 90% stake in Barcelona, Spain-based desktop and network service provider, Grupo Eltec SA (CI No 3,715). This brought the company’s total workforce in Spain to 1,300, up from just 40 last year. Desktop outsourcing has been the focus of much of debis Systemhaus’ recent international expansion.
