Hitachi Consulting acquires fast-growing Stone Apple
Global consulting firm Hitachi Consulting has acquired Stone Apple, a Singapore based IT consulting firm. Approximately 1,500 employees in 9 countries will join Hitachi Consulting. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Hitachi Consulting, the consultancy unit of Hitachi, has approximately 5,000 professionals across 21 countries in North America, Europe and Asia. The firm offers a broad range of management consulting and IT consulting services to mainly large corporates across 20+ industries.
Stone Apple is one of Singapore's fastest-growing technology consulting companies. Founded in 2009, the firm has grown astonishingly over the past 5 years to over 1,500 employees in 9 countries. Stone Apple supports clients with IT advisory and the implementation of technology solutions, with a focus on the Financial Services, Utilities, Manufacturing, Education, Healthcare and Public sectors.
In line with the ambition to boost its footprint in Asia, Hitachi Consulting has over the past months considered several potential acquisition targets in the region, and following a due diligence and constructive negotiations with Stone Apple’s owners, the firm has decided to acquire the Singapore based firm, for an undisclosed fee. The deal will complement Hitachi Consulting's existing capabilities in technology implementation and outsourcing services, and grow its footprint in South East Asia including in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, as well as provide a strong foundation in Brazil.
"We are very excited about the acquisition of Stone Apple. They are an excellent enterprise application and analytics services provider with strong expertise in Oracle and SAP technologies. They successfully leverage their deep industry and domain experience to enable technology adoption across complex global engagements. We look forward to the opportunity to better serve our global clients through the added depth and breadth that Stone Apple brings," says Phil Parr, CEO of Hitachi Consulting.
"Stone Apple was founded on the philosophy of delivering on its promises to add tangible value to our client businesses through technology and optimal business processes. We pride ourselves on having achieved global reach with local expertise in both Asia and South America," say its founders, Madhujeet Chimni and Bharadwaj Chivukula, CEO and COO, respectively. "Hitachi Consulting clearly shares that same passion and we look forward to now bringing together the talented people of Stone Apple with those of Hitachi Consulting to build on this capability and to develop a market leading position in our field," adds Ricardo Nunes, the Managing Director in Brazil.
For Hitachi Consulting, it is the second large acquisition in a few years. Early 2013 it significantly bolstered its management consultancy offerings practice with the acquisition of Celerant Consulting, adding roughly 600 consultants to its headcount.
