Skillsgroup Plc, the Rossendale, UK-based IT services company, has acquired Pontis Consulting Plc, an UK IT consultancy firm, for 34 million pounds ($55.3). Skillsgroup has repositioned itself as a pure services firm in the last eighteen months, selling off its desktop computer business in January 1998 for 11.5m plus the transference of 15m pounds of indebtedness, as well as its PC and reselling businesses in Sweden, Belgium and the UK. The purchase represents part of SkillsgroupÆs ongoing expansion strategy, as was the purchase last week of The Knowledge Centre, a UK datacommunications training company. SkillsgroupÆs 1998 revenues were up 25% at 99.7m pounds ($162.2m).
