Equiteq advises Salesforce expert 4C on its sale to Wipro
Belgian origin Salesforce partner 4C has been acquired by Wipro for total consideration of €68 million. Equiteq adviser the sell-side of the deal, which sees over 350 employees in Europe and the Middle East join the Indian IT services giant.
Established in 1997 with its headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium, 4C is a consultancy which helps companies unlock commercial value and achieve business transformation, offering clients both expertise and implementation services centred around Salesforce and its ecosystem. The group has been growing quickly across its global operations, particularly in the Middle East, and the firm is subsequently the EMEA region’s largest independent Salesforce Platinum Partner.
With over 350 employees based out of local offices in London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen and Dubai, 4C began looking to expand its robust Salesforce practice – but determined that it would need investment in order to do so. As a result, the firm tapped Equiteq, a specialist professional services firm which specialises in supporting consultancies through mergers and acquisitions.
Equiteq began advising 4C on attracting new backing by helping set up the company for a transaction to take place. The firm then undertook a search to find a partner who would be the best possible fit for 4C’s culture and ambitions, before working to close a deal with them. That partner ended up being Wipro, a global information consulting and business process services company, which works to help clients to adapt to the digital world by harnessing the power of emerging technologies such as cloud, cognitive computing, and hyper-automation.
Commenting on the deal, which will likely close in September, Johan Van Genechten, Chief Executive Officer, 4C said, "Wipro shares the same values as we do. Their global presence, robust digital transformation consulting and delivery capabilities and significant investment in the European market, provides an excellent platform for the growth of our employees. We will now leverage this opportunity to take the next leap in building companies for the future for our customers, not just locally but across EMEA.”
The move also bolsters Wipro’s position as a provider of Salesforce solutions in the EMEA region. 4C will be consolidated as part of Wipro’s Salesforce practice, providing solutions globally around multiple Salesforce clouds and its ecosystem of products. This adds to Wipro’s well-established Salesforce business in the Americas, Japan and Australia – which was also reinforced with its purchase of Appirio in 2016.
Harish Dwarkanhalli, President of Wipro’s Cloud Enterprise Platforms, remarked, “We are excited to have the team at 4C join us. They bring in a rich blend of deep Salesforce expertise across multiple clouds coupled with a team of multi-faceted, multilingual experts with strong regional knowledge. This combination along with Wipro’s reach across the region and industry, will help us become a dominant player in Europe and a leader in Salesforce’s Quote to Cash domain.”
4C has over 500 customers, 350 employees and has completed over 1,500 projects, and the deal is reportedly taking place for a consideration of for €68 million. The company reported revenues of €32 million for the financial year ending January 2020.
Speaking on Equiteq’s role in the transaction, Jerome Glynn-Smith, Equiteq’s Managing Director in London, said, "We are delighted to have delivered this transaction, setting 4C up for its next phase of expansion. We see an on-going trend of business combination between innovation boutiques and global majors in consulting, to support the ever-expanding scope of the Salesforce ecosystem.”
