HCL to acquire Australian IT firm for $118.6 million

Information technology (IT) services firm HCL Technologies on Monday announced its intent to acquire a 100% stake in Australian IT solutions firm DWS for Rs 847 crore (about $115.6 million at current exchange rates), which will be paid entirely in cash. 

The publicly listed DWS had reported revenue of  Rs 901 crore in the financial year ending June 30, 2020.

Noida headquartered HCL said that the acquisition of the IT consulting major in the region will help it strengthen the market position while also driving its digital strategies in Australia and New Zealand. 

DWS has over 700 employees and offices in most major cities of these two countries.

The company will be acquired by HCL Australia Services, a wholly owned step-down subsidiary of HCL and will be completed by the end of this year. 

"HCL has invested in the region for over 20 years and is committed to enabling digitilisation and growing the local ecosystem. DWS is powered by highly talented consultants who enable organisations to be at the cutting edge of technology,” Michael Horton, executive vice president and country manager for Australia and New Zealand at HCL said in a statement.

HCL, which employs 1,600 people in Australia, said that it delivers technology solutions to some of the region’s largest companies. 

"HCL brings best in class technology capabilities, global scale and a wide network of clients and partners across industries. This acquisition represents an outstanding outcome for all DWS stakeholders: shareholders, employees, clients and other business partners,” said Danny Wallis, CEO and managing director at DWS.

A few months ago, HCL had announced the acquisition of San Jose, California-based Cisco's self optimising network (SON) technology, which the company said will provide Cisco’s SON’s multi-vendor multi-technology and application support to HCL's customers.

The company’s peers aren’t behind in the deals space. In September, IT services major Infosys acquired two firms -- product design and development firm Kaleidoscope Innovation for $42 million and ServiceNow partner GuideVision, an enterprise service management consultancy, for up to €30 million.

Bengaluru-based Wipro has also made two acquisitions this financial year -- European Salesforce multi-cloud partner 4C for €68 million and Fortaleza, Brazil based firm IVIA Serviços de Informática for $22.4 million.