Altran acquires North American software engineering firm Lohika

17 August 2016 Consultancy.uk

Altran has acquired software engineering company Lohika, headquartered in Silicon Valley. The deal sees Altran’s North American revenues boosted by 40%, as well as providing it with a strong muscle of strategically located capabilities in software related R&D. The addition also includes delivery teams, three in Ukraine and one in Romania, to Altran’s Global Delivery Centres.

Lohika is a Silicon Valley headquartered software engineering company. The company was founded in 2001 and has, on the back of venture capital investment from Altos Ventures and Draper Richards among others, grown to a team of more than 700 engineers. The company is most active within the North American market, with engineering delivery teams in three locations in the Ukraine and one in Romania. The firm’s clients for its SaaS and related products include startups within Silicon Valley, such as AudienceScience, BuzzFeed, Twilio and Okta.

The addition of Lohika to Altran’s North American business is set to boost its 2016 revenues by 40%, according to the firm, making it the Group’s largest area by revenue. Its North American operation was earlier this year already boosted through the addition of Synapse, which was integrated into its independent subsidiary Cambridge Consultants.

Altran picks up Lohika to boost North American capabilities

Through the addition the firm adds three new capacities. Lohika will improve its value proposition to customers in the software development domain – in one of the world’s most critical R&D markets, Silicon Valley – as well as boost its relationship with local, fast scaling, startups. The firm also adds, through the acquisition, additional skillsets to its portfolio, including expertise and client engagements in mobile, enterprise systems, big data solutions and cloud computing. Finally, the bolt-on of teams in Ukraine and Romania bolster the capacity of the Altran's Global Delivery Centres whose combined headcount has now broken through the barrier of 4,000.

The deal is expected to be closed later this year, and is subject to customary closing conditions. Altran was advised by EY in terms of Financial, Tax and Legal Due Diligence and received legal support from Latham & Watkins.

Commenting on the purchase, Dominique Cerutti, Chairman and CEO of the Altran Group, says that he is “thrilled” with this acquisition, which he says is fully aligned with the firm’s 'Altran 2020. Ignition' strategic plan. He adds, “After the acquisition of Tessella, which has operations in the USA, and of Synapse a few weeks ago, we take a new step with the integration of Lohika towards positioning Altran as a leader in software engineering and R&D in North America, a priority market for us. In addition, the acquisition of Lohika will enable us to expand and diversify our Industrialised GlobalShore delivery capabilities. These capabilities will be leveraged across all sectors and geographies and will enhance our value proposition in software engineering, which is becoming prevalent in the R&D space.”

Daniel Dargham, President and CEO of Lohika, adds, “In our connected world, software has evolved from disrupting traditional businesses to interconnecting all industries. Altran’s global leadership in innovative engineering, multi-industry knowledge and advanced software capabilities, coupled with Lohika’s diverse software engineering expertise, will place us at the forefront of the digital transformation of the enterprise. We will be able to extend our services beyond our current client base in Silicon Valley, to the entire Altran portfolio.”