IBM to acquire PwC for $3.5 billion

Associated Press, New York

Technology giant IBM Corp. said Tuesday that it will purchase the consulting and technology services arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers for US$3.5 billion in cash and stock.

The consulting arm, PwC Consulting, will join IBM's giant Global Services unit, which has overtaken the company's hardware division as its largest revenue earner.

The acquisition, subject to approval of federal regulators and local PwC partners, will add some 30,000 new employees to the division that already counts about half of IBM's approximately 320,000 workers.

In a prepared release, both companies said they expected the deal to be concluded around the end of the third quarter.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, which had planned to shed PwC Consulting through an initial public offering, will no longer do so, said chief executive Samuel A. DiPiazza.

"This transaction fulfills our commitment to fully separate PwC Consulting from PwC," DiPiazza said in a prepared statement.

PwC Consulting, with estimated fiscal-year 2002 consulting revenues of $4.9 billion - excluding client reimbursables - will be combined with IBM Global Services' Business Innovation Services unit.

With profits shrinking in sales of computer hardware and components, IBM was known to be looking to bolster its already large services business.

The expanded Global Services unit will emphasize selling packages of "integrated business solutions," which bundle technology consulting alongside sales of hardware and software, and its integration into the company's business process.

Some of IBM's large, multiyear outsourcing deals have involved the takeover of a company's entire information technology department, including hundreds of employees.

The acquisition will allow IBM to strengthen its expertise in business processes, said Doug Elix, senior vice president with IBM Global Services

"This is an exceptionally good fit - both strategically and culturally," Elix said.

IBM shares closed at $71.79 each, up 61 cents, in Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.