Under the terms of the agreement, Vienna, Austria-based S&T will pay an undisclosed sum to acquire Fujitsu Services’ subsidiaries in the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Markus Klampfer, head of investor relations for S&T, told ComputerWire that the company plans further deals. We are also in ongoing negotiations regarding the sale of Fujitsu’s subsidiaries in Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, he said. The deal ranks as the largest acquisition to date by S&T, and will add 300 people to its 900 existing workforce as well as a further 30m euros ($31.8m) revenue during the remainder of 2003, which will turn S&T into a 200m euro ($212m) business.

Fujitsu Services was formerly known as ICL, the UK-based IT services arm of Japanese electronics manufacturer Fujitsu. According to Klampfer, the decision by Fujitsu to sell its Eastern European operations is part of its plan to exit the market altogether. The acquisition will now add to existing operations for S&T in all other acquired territories except Greece and Malta, where it is now establishing a new presence.

The sale is part of an ongoing reorganization of Fujitsu’s IT services business to focus on profitability and large international deals. The process began with the rebranding and restructuring of its three main arms – ICL, Amdahl and DMR Consulting in early 2002, a move that created a 4% increase in revenue to JPY 2.08 trillion ($15.6bn) in the companies in the year ended March 31, 2002. IT services represents around a quarter of Fujitsu’s total revenue, and Fujitsu Software and Services, its global IT services operation, is now the world’s third largest IT services business after IBM and EDS.

Klampfer said the acquired Fujitsu subsidiaries will inject more high-level consulting business into the company. Currently, two-thirds of our business is based on hardware sales and we want to increase the services balance. Fujitsu’s consulting sales are significantly more than ours.

S&T is a reseller and IT services provider for a range of hardware from companies such as HP, EMC, IBM, Cisco, StorageTek, Checkpoint and Network Appliance. It also sells and integrates software from SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and BEA. Prominent clients include the National Bank of Romania, Citibank Turkey, Bulgarian National Electricity, Volkswagen Slovakia, and Mercedes Benz Turkey.

S&T has proved one of the most acquisitive IT services firms in 2002 through building up its presence in Europe. Last August, the company opened offices in Latvia and Montenegro, and in July 2002, the company acquired the Romanian subsidiary of Austrian SAP systems integration specialist Plaut AG. In June 2002, the company acquired Turkish managed services business Protek Bilgisayar Sistemleri AS. In the same month, S&T sold off its Croatian PC assembly and distribution business, HPC.

Source: Computerwire