EY Advisory buys IT expert Corporate Quality Consulting
Global accounting and consulting firm EY has acquired Corporate Quality Consulting, a German-based IT consultancy firm. 65 consultants will join EY’s Advisory practice in Germany, and the Corporate Quality Consulting brand will be dropped in favour of EY.
Corporate Quality Consulting specialises in IT consulting services, among others IT-advisory (e.g. IT-strategy, IT-operating model design) and IT-implementation services (e.g. system roll-out, IT-delivery). The firm has 65 employees and a revenue of just under €14 million (FY2013).
With the objective of boosting its advisory footprint – in line with EY’s global strategy to expand its market share in the consulting industry – EY Germany has decided to poach Corporate Quality Consulting. According to Markus Schweizer, responsible for EY’s Advisory business in the DACH region, the acquisition will significantly boost its IT capabilities. “With the transaction of Corporate Quality Consulting we have strengthened our business with a firm that can build on a strong track record. The addition will significantly bolster our services in the area of IT consulting.”
As part of the deal, Stephan Salmann and Oliver Kuklok, who both founded Corporate Quality Consulting in 2005, will join EY as a partner. They however will have to let go of their original brand as EY has announced that it will, following closing, drop the label and continue its operations under the EY flag.
"Together, Corporate Quality Consulting and EY will be able to provide organisations across all industries a complete spectrum of high-quality IT consulting services,” adds Salmann.
Fourth consultancy acquisition
For EY, the acquisition of Corporate Quality Consulting is the fourth large deal in the consulting segment in the past three months. In September it bought the Australian sustainability expert Net Balance, in August EY bought Sweeney Research (70 employees), another Australian based management consultancy, and in July it acquired The Parthenon Group, a global strategy consulting firm with roughly 350 consultants that recently was nominated one of the globe’s top 50 consulting firms (#11 on the list).
Looking specifically at the German market, the last major transaction of EY was the acquisition of counterpart J&M Management Consulting, which added 320 consultants to EY’s local Advisory unit. Across the German-speaking region EY now has 3.800 consultants, an a revenue of roughly €478 million.
