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BT splashes out €60m on French IT services acquisition
Loss-making company will boost BT's European presence…

By Andy McCue

Published: Monday 06 August 2007

BT is set to pay €60m for the IT and network services division of CS Communication & Systemes.

The loss-making Mission Critical Infrastructures division of the French company employs 1,400 people and hit €137.7m of revenue in 2006.

BT has submitted a binding offer to CS Communication & Systemes and has until 30 November to complete the deal pending consultation with representatives from both companies' works councils and merger and regulatory clearances.

Special Report: Inside India

In February silicon.com's Steve Ranger visited the Indian tech hotspots of Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. Click on the links below to see photo galleries of the cities and companies visited.

♦ Satyam's IT campus
♦ Hyderabad's tech parks
♦ Bringing tech to rural India
♦ High-tech on the streets of Pune
♦ Pune - the new Bangalore?
♦ Boom town Bangalore
♦ Bangalore's Electronics City
♦ SAP and Wipro in Bangalore

The acquisition would almost double BT's IT and network services revenue in France to around €400m.

But BT will need to demonstrate it can turn around the operation and build a pragmatic service offering with a mix of fixed-price projects and body-shopping services, according to Dominique Raviart, analyst at Ovum.

He said in a research note: "[Mission] Critical Infrastructures is still very much a unit that is in its early phase of recovery. Nevertheless, the €60m price looks like a very reasonable price for BT to scale up its influence in the French market."


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