PA completes fourth acquisition in 12 months with We Are Friday deal
Global professional services firm PA Consulting Group has completed a deal to acquire specialist digital agency We Are Friday for an undisclosed fee. The move comes at the end of a 12-month spending spree by the British origin PA, having purchased four companies since a major private equity investment in the firm.
Before late 2017, PA Consulting had not completed a major acquisition since 2012. Following a much-needed investment in the employee-owned firm by private equity firm Carlyle, however, the firm enjoyed a new lease of life, and was quick to put the funding to work. Over the last 12 months, PA has completed four purchases, as it seeks to supplement organic growth with an aggressive expansion campaign.
This first saw PA sign Nyras at the turn of the year, expanding the firm’s aviation consulting offering in the process. PA would not wait a further five years for its next purchase, either, and followed this up with the acquisition of digital consultancy Sparkler in mid-2018. Later in the year, PA made it a hat-trick with the purchase of innovation strategy company Essential Design. The additions significantly boosted PA’s fee income, and as the firm looks to maintain its momentum, it has completed its fourth deal in the space of 12 months.
We Are Friday was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in London. The specialist digital service design and engineering agency works with leading global organisations, helping them re-imagine and design their customer experience, improve the technology that powers their organisation and develop the capability to better manage their technology. The firm’s clients include Aetna, Nuffield Health, Jackson Hewitt, TalkTalk and the British Red Cross, among others.
Following the deal, We Are Friday will join PA’s innovation team, enhancing its existing expertise in digital service design, modern engineering and digital transformation. The full terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Friday’s founding partners, CEO Alex Wright and CTO/COO Chris Walker, said, “We’re passionate about making organisations work brilliantly for people, by transforming them digitally from the ground up. We design digital services and build digital products to help organisations innovate and transform, and to make their customer experience a source of competitive advantage. As part of PA, we can do this for more clients, at greater depth and scale, and with greater impact by applying the complementary expertise and capabilities PA offers.”
PA Consulting’s Digital Team Leader, Jiten Kachhela, commented, “We offer market-leading, end-to-end digital expertise to clients around the world and the Friday team will add further scale and depth to our existing capability in customer experience and service design, digital transformation and technology innovation. The arrival of Friday is an exciting addition to PA and supports our Purpose: ‘We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future in a technology-driven world’.”
PA has enjoyed a year of continued expansion for its Digital operations in the UK. Earlier in 2018, it announced the broadening of its Northern Irish team in September, creating up to 400 jobs in Belfast over the next five years.
