Capgemini eyes digital, analytics firms for acquisition

French software services and business consulting company Capgemini plans to spend €500 million (about Rs 4,000 crore) to buy 10 smaller firms to bolster capabilities in areas such as digital and analytics, according to a media report.

The Paris-headquartered firm had last month acquired LiquidHub, a US-based digital customer engagement firm that counts Indian private equity firm ChrysCapital as an investor. ChrysCapital had led LiquidHub’s Series B round of funding worth $53 million in 2014.

E-mail queries sent to Capgemini did not elicit a response till the time of publishing this report.

Capgemini plans to keep LiquidHub at the centre stage of the acquisitions and realign its service offerings using expertise in complex technologies from the smaller firms, The Economic Times reported. “LiquidHub is the terminal and we can dock small helicopters (companies) and there will be around 10 comparatively smaller firms,” Capgemini chairman Paul Hermelin told the business newspaper.

Among Capgemini’s Indian competitors, Wipro has been aggressive in buying small to mid-sized firms to boost capabilities in areas such as cloud computing-based services and design thinking. Capgemini also has a large presence in India.

In April 2015, it bought IGATE in a $4 billion cash deal. On the company’s biggest acquisitions in India, Hermelin said, “IGATE is a company that perfectly fits our strategic ambition.

It will give us a new status on the American market, and take further our industrialisation journey to offer ever more competitive services to our clients.”