Accenture Digital buys mobile agency MOBGEN, adds 160 staff
Accenture has acquired Netherlands-based digital agency MOBGEN. The acquisition bolsters the firm’s digital consulting and technology offering – roughly 160 employees in the Netherlands, the UK and Spain transfer to Accenture Digital.
Headquartered in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) and with offices in the UK (London) and Spain (La Coruna and Malaga), MOBGEN has over 160 employees and develops digital, in particular mobile, solutions. The agency integrates these solutions with existing systems ready for deployment, and continues to run and maintain them as a service. MOBGEN has a revenue of around €12 million (expected in 2016) and works for organisations such as Shell, Inditex, ABN Amro, Aegon, Stage Entertainment, Boskalis and Vimpelcom.
Yesterday Ron Vrijmoet, CEO and one of the four co-founders of MOBGEN, unveiled that the agency has been picked up by Accenture, with over 375,000 professionals in 120+ countries one of the globe’s largest professional services firms. The consulting firm has been actively growing its footprint in the digital landscape in recent years, in a bid to tap into the growing important of digitalisation and automation in the business realm. “The acquisition provides a large boost to Accenture’s digital operations in Europe. The demand for digital and mobile services / apps is growing rapidly. And the demand is coming straight from the boardrooms of organsations. With their expertise in digital, creativity and technology MOBGEN will better enable us to help clients capitalise on the potential of existing and emerging technologies,” says Marc Huijbregts, Accenture Digital lead in the Netherlands.
The acquired unit will be integrated into Accenture Digital* – one of the five business units of the business advisory – although it will continue to operate as a standalone entity. With the bolt-on, Accenture Digital significantly expands its capabilities in mobile development. “Demand for mobility platforms, services and applications is mounting, but as the Internet of Things grows (a market set to grow to$11,1 trillion in 2025), these need to be built for an increasingly complex range of functions and devices while keeping the user experience in mind,” comments Huijbregts. MOBGEN possesses these skills, is able to integrate mobile experiences into back-end systems (“only then do they add concrete value”) and ensures that systems following implementation continue to operate, he highlights.
Jack Ramsay, Senior Managing Director, Accenture Digital, adds: “With their holistic approach and focus on service design, meshing their creative and technology experience to strengthen brand relationships, MOBGEN will help Accenture offer clients across Europe the support they need to match the fast pace of technological change.”
Vrijmoet says that the deal is “great news” for the employees and clients of MOBGEN. He states “We are still only in the discovery phase of how this mobile revolution will transform the way we live and work, and our clients know that to provide the very best, most exciting customer experiences, the underpinning digital solutions are critical. MOBGEN is and will remain at the centre of this revolution as part of Accenture Digital, offering our existing and new clients access to deep industry expertise and global, scalable service design and technology resources that will help them build ever-stronger relationships with their customers and employees.”
Acquisition drive
The acquisition of MOBGEN builds on several previous acquisitions closed by Accenture Digital in recent months. Early July Accenture purchased a majority stake in the Japanese IMJ Corporation (~600 professionals), and last month it bought the German dgroup (60 consultants). Last year among others Chaotic Moon (US), PacificLink (Hong Kong) and Reactive Media (Australië) were added to Accenture’s Digital platform.
* Accenture Digital consists of Accenture Analytics, Accenture Interactive and Accenture Mobility.
