Telefónica Tech, the enterprise solutions division of Spanish telecoms group Telefónica, has acquired Austria-based cloud solutions provider and enterprise software integrator BE-terna for up to €350 million, including potential earnouts. BE-terna specialises in driving digital transformation based mainly on Microsoft, but also works with Infor, UI Path and Qlik to optimise business processes for different industries.
The firm is one of Microsoft’s top five partners in Europe for Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software applications, and a ‘gold’ status partner for the cloud giant with 11 different ‘competencies’, including for cloud business applications, application development, and data analytics. It is also recognised variously as an ‘elite solution provider’ and ‘gold channel partner’ by Qlik.
The deal values BE-terna at 13.7 times its gross operating profit – “considering synergies and results expected for 2022”. BE-terna posted proforma revenues of €121 million in 2021 and is growing around 30 percent per annum, through organic sales and new acquisitions. BE-terna has acquired and integrated 15 companies, since setting up in 2005. Telefónica Tech has acquired the firm from Deutsche Private Equity, plus other minority shareholders.
The Spanish firm said the deal positions it as a “relevant tech services player” with a new presence in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Adriatic region and the Nordics. BE-terna has over 1,000 staff in 28 locations across Austria, Germany, and other European and Nordic markets. The deal takes Telefónica Tech headcount to 5,400. The firm has integrated acens, purchased Altostratus, incorporated Geprom, and also formed Telefónica Tech UK&I through the acquisitions of CANCOM UK&I, and recently Incremental Group.
José Cerdán, chief executive at Telefónica Tech, said: “Our priority is to… deliver differential growth both organically and inorganically. BE-terna will reinforce our cloud capabilities in Germany and enable us to enter other central European and Nordic markets. As the pandemic forces a faster move to the cloud and a greater need for digital transformation, Microsoft stands as one of the preferred partners for these projects, and BE-terna is a leading European player in this field.”.
Christian Kranebitter, founder of BE-terna, said: “The offerings from Telefónica Tech and BE-terna are very complementary and will empower us to serve existing and new customers with all key technologies and solutions that are required to design, deliver and operate a successful digitalization strategy. Many customers are currently moving more and more business-critical workloads to the cloud. Combining our existing solutions with Telefónica Tech’s offering creates a solution portfolio that ideally supports this transformation.”
