Consulting sector M&A deals (February 19th – March 8th)

CMTA Consulting Engineers Acquires Arlington-based TMR
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Engineering Date: February 19, 2016
CMTA Consulting Engineers, recognized as a national energy leader in high performance, sustainable design, is pleased to announce the merger of Arlington-based TMR Engineering into its growing northeast operations. This acquisition enables CMTA to continue providing renewable energy design services in the D.C. area through its Net Zero Energy (NZE) expertise.
“CMTA’s practice in the D.C. area has been expanding in the past three years, and we felt that a local presence was necessary to serve our D.C., Virginia and Maryland clients,” commented Kenneth L. Seibert, PE, President of CMTA. “CMTA and TMR share similar cultures and we were impressed with the quality of their engineering staff.  Their Combined Heat and Power (CHP) expertise aligns well with our Net Zero Energy expertise.”
CMTA’s solid portfolio of sustainable design projects includes Arlington County’s Discovery Elementary School, also the first net-zero energy project in the northeast. High performance buildings such as Discovery Elementary School generate energy on-site to meet all of their heating, cooling, and electrical requirements. CMTA is committed to supporting similar collaborative energy efficient projects that represent tangible cost saving benefits while preserving the environment for future generations.
http://dc.citybizlist.com

BlackBerry acquires cyber security consultancy firm
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: IT Consulting Date: February 25, 2016
BlackBerry said it has acquired UK-based cyber security consultancy Encription, moving the company deeper into the services business as it continues to morph into a more software-focused entity amid its ongoing turnaround.
The smartphone industry pioneer, which is pivoting to focus more on security software and services as the popularity of its devices have waned, said it sees massive potential in the area, with cyber security consulting currently worth an estimated $16.5 billion (K50.15 billion) a year globally.
The terms of the Encription deal, which closed Friday, were not disclosed.
The acquisition will bring a team of about 40 cyber security professionals, who have helped test network vulnerabilities for both government agencies and corporate entities, into the BlackBerry fold.
“This is a natural extension of what we do right now,” BlackBerry’s head of corporate development James Mackey said.
“We’re very excited about this new offering and we think it is highly complementary and a nice addition to our security portfolio.
“The acquisition will give BlackBerry the opportunity to cross-sell some of its own security products.”
BlackBerry said the new consulting services and tools, along with its existing security offerings, will help its clients to identify the latest cyber security threats, develop mitigation strategies, and implement the necessary IT security standards to defend against cyber attacks. The acquisition of Encription is the latest in a string of software and services focused acquisitions made by BlackBerry in the last year. In September, the company agreed to acquire rival security software maker Good Technology. – Reuter.
http://www.thenational.com

ARMA Acquisition, LLC Acquires Firm Solutions, A Law Firm Practice Management And Consulting Services Company
Size: Undisclosed Industry: Management Consulting Date: February 29, 2016
TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Firm Solutions, LLC, a Tampa-based provider of specialized consulting and practice management solutions to law firms nationwide, announced today its acquisition by ARMA Acquisition, LLC, an investment group focused on providing business solutions to the financial services industry and its service providers. In his role as CEO of ARMA Acquisition, LLC, Scott Brinkley will relocate to the Tampa area to manage several of ARMA’s portfolio companies.
Jan Duke will remain COO of Firm Solutions and believes this partnership positions the company for tremendous growth and expansion. “My team is looking forward to working withScott Brinkley, leveraging his knowledge and experience in the mortgage and legal industries,” said Duke. “This new endeavor will allow our team to continue to provide quality service to our clients, while simultaneously developing new relationships. This is a terrific step forward for our company and the clients we serve.”
“The innovative service offerings provided by Firm Solutions are extremely relevant for law firms operating in today’s default services marketplace and we are impressed with the team’s agility and creativity,” said Brinkley. “With our investor group backing the company and its plans for expansion into additional solution areas, we are confident that the business will continue its impressive growth, and provide sustainable, high impact solutions to law firms across the country.”
http://www.investorpoint.com

Virtusa Acquires Majority Stake in India’s Polaris Consulting and Services
Deal Size: $165M Industry: IT Consulting and Outsourcing Date: March 8, 2016
​​US-based IT outsourcing company Virtusa Corp.’s (NASDAQ GS: VRTU) Virtusa Consulting Services Private Ltd. India subsidiary has acquired all of the outstanding shares of Indian financial services consultant Polaris Consulting and Services, Ltd. (BSE: POLARIS) (NSE: POLARIS) (MSEI: POLARIS) held by Arun Jain, founder and chairman of Polaris, Orbitech Private Ltd., and certain other minority stockholders, the company said.
The deal represents an aggregate of approximately 51.7%of the fully diluted outstanding shares of Polaris. Virtusa paid an average of USD 3.12 per share (INR 213.883 per share), for an aggregate purchase consideration of USD 165.89m (INR 11,364m).
Jitin Goyal will remain CEO of Polaris, and was appointed president, BFS, to lead Virtusa’s and Polaris’ business operations serving the banking and financial services verticals. Raj Rajgopal, president of Virtusa, was appointed president, ETS, and will lead Virtusa’s and Polaris’ operations serving the insurance, communications and technology, and media, information and other verticals. In their respective roles, Goyal and Rajgopal will be responsible for executing Virtusa’s and Polaris’ growth strategies, which will include driving over USD 100m of cumulative revenue synergies over the next three fiscal years from the business combination.
Beginning on 11 March 2016, Virtusa will commence an unconditional mandatory open offer to Polaris’ public shareholders to purchase up to an additional 26%of the outstanding shares of Polaris. The aggregate price for the shares to be purchased in such offer, assuming full tender and the offer price remaining unchanged, is estimated at approximately USD 86.1m (INR 5,898m). Upon closing of the mandatory offer period on March 28, 2016, and assuming full tender, and settlement of the tendered shares by 12 April 2016, Virtusa will own a 74.99% majority interest in Polaris. The combination of Virtusa and Polaris creates a leading global provider of IT services and solutions to BFS, bringing together Virtusa’s deep domain expertise in consumer and retail banking with Polaris’ proven strength in corporate and investment banking. Virtusa expects to realise over USD 100m of cumulative revenue synergies over the next three fiscal years. Polaris is expected to be approximately (USD 0.11) dilutive to Virtusa’s non-GAAP EPS in fiscal year 2016, slightly dilutive in fiscal year 2017, and accretive in fiscal year 2018 and beyond. Upon the closing, Citigroup Technology Group, Inc. has designated Virtusa and Polaris as preferred vendors for Global Technology Resource Strategy for the provision of IT services to Citi on an enterprise-wide basis. Virtusa and Polaris combined have approximately 19,000employees as of 31 December 2015.
Virtusa provides information technology services to Global 2000 companies. These services include IT consulting, application maintenance, development, systems integration and managed services. Polaris Consulting and Services is in solutions and services that enable operational productivity for the global financial services industry. Polaris’ services include process engineering, solution consulting, system integration, application development and maintenance, production support, testing, and infrastructure management.
http://www.bloomberg.com

Millward Brown agrees to acquire marketing analytics company Analytics Quotient
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Marketing Consulting Date: February 29, 2016
WPP announces that its operating network Millward Brown, a global leader in brand, media and communications research, has agreed to acquire the business operations of Analytics Quotient (“AQ”), a marketing analytics company that extracts insights from data to help clients define their marketing strategies. AQ also builds data visualization tools and custom analytics solutions to help clients slice, dice, simulate and monitor business data. AQ employs around 400 people and works with some of the world’s largest CPG, retail and hospitality brands. Founded in Bangalore, India in 2008, the company also has offices in London, and in the US in Norwalk, CT, Atlanta, GA and Bentonville, AR. AQ’s unaudited revenues for the year-ended December 31, 2015 were approximately US$12.3 million with assets of US$9.5 million as at the same date.
AQ will become part of Millward Brown Analytics, a Kantar brand focused on using connected data intelligence to unlock insights that help clients drive growth. Millward Brown is part of Kantar, which is the data investment management arm of WPP and one of the world’s largest insight, information and consultancy groups. By connecting the diverse talents of its 12 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 30,000 employees work across 100 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group’s services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies. This acquisition continues WPP’s strategy of investing in important markets and sectors and strengthening its capabilities in digital and data investment management businesses. Worldwide, WPP’s data investment management companies (including associates and investments) collectively generate revenues of almost US$5 billion and employ over 36,000 people.
https://www.wpp.com

Merkle Acquires US Relationship Management Firm Comet Global Consulting
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Marketing & IT Consulting Date: March 7, 2016
7 March 2016 – US-based marketing agency Merkle has acquired US-based customer relationship management firm Comet Global Consulting, the company said.
Comet’s expertise in the telecommunications, financial services, retail, travel, and media industries is a strategic match to Merkle’s vertical go-to-market approach. Comet’s team of more than 300 experts are located across the United Kingdom, United States, and Spain. They will join Merkle’s Marketing Solutions Group, bringing Merkle’s total number of European employees to more than 500 and more than 3,400 worldwide. Launched in 2006, Comet specializes in delivering strategy, technical consulting, and ongoing development and operational support services for global brands. Merkle is a performance marketing agency and the largest independent agency in the US for CRM, digital, and search. With more than 3,400 employees, the privately held corporation is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland with 15 additional offices in the US and offices in Barcelona, London, Shanghai, and Nanjing.
http://www.bloomberg.com

Publicis.Sapient Buys US Marketing FIrm Vertiba
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Marketing Consulting Date: March 7, 2016
7 March 2016 – French digital transformation platform company Publicis.Sapient has acquired US-based marketing and customer service company Vertiba, the company said.
Publicis.Sapient combines expertise from across its digital solutions and consulting businesses to reinvent, reconfigure and connect multiple business functions, capabilities, operations, and organizational structures in order to improve a company’s overall operating performance.
Founded in 2010, Vertiba is a privately held company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. It offers a range of services around the Salesforce platform and has completed more than 800 projects leveraging its skills in consulting, implementation and integration, as well as custom cloud application development and support.
Publicis.Sapient will integrate Vertiba’s capabilities into the platform. Publicis Groupe (Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40) provides marketing, communication, and business transformation. Active across the entire value chain, from consulting to creation and execution, it offers a unified, fluid model allowing access to all the Groupe’s tools and expertise around the world. Present in 108 countries, the Groupe employs more than 77,000 professionals.
http://www.bloomberg.com

Burson-Marsteller Acquires Swiss Sports Management Specialist
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Sports Consulting Date: March 6, 2016
LAUSANNE—Burson-Marsteller has acquired a majority stake in TSE Consulting, an international sports consulting firm that will become a fully integrated part of the Burson-Marsteller network.
Headquartered in Lausanne—home of the International Olympic Committee—and with regional offices in Europe, North and South America, Africa and the Middle East, TSE specialises in providing communications counsel to public sector and international sport organisations and will strengthen the global agency’s sports capabilities.
According to Jeremy Galbraith, CEO of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East & Africa: “With its headquarters in Lausanne, TSE Consulting has developed close and deep relationships with international sports bodies. Working together with our offices in Switzerland and across the world to provide strategic communications advice to sports leaders and organisations, TSE adds a significant new dimension to our offer at a time when there are tremendous developments in the world of sports.”
TSE clients include the Brazilian National Olympic Committee, the Qatar Olympic Committee, the City of Manchester, the City of Amsterdam, the Danish Swimming Federation, United World Wrestling, and the World Archery Association. http://www.holmesreport.com