Consulting Sector M&A Deals (May 3rd – May 16th)

Washington D.C.-based Brittenford Systems, Inc. Joins Wipfli LLP
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Professional Services Date: May 3^rd, 2016
Wipfli LLP (Wipfli), one of the top 20 accounting and consulting firms in the United States, announced today that Brittenford Systems, Inc. joined the firm effective May 1. Brittenford Systems, Inc., a firm headquartered in Reston, Virginia, provides accounting system, enterprise performance management, and CIO Advisory services to small and mid-market businesses and nonprofit organizations.
“The addition of the seasoned professionals and extensive software development expertise of Brittenford Systems, Inc. will strengthen the firm’s ability to provide even more innovative solutions to our clients, helping them face their challenges today and well into the future,” said Rick Dreher, managing partner of Wipfli LLP. “While this merger will greatly enhance our firm and its consulting practice, it holds even greater benefits for our clients.”
Brittenford Systems, Inc. specializes in providing financial system and accounting software implementations and support services to hundreds of businesses and organizations around the country, focusing specifically on Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft Dynamics GP and cloud-based Intacct and Host Analytics, as well as Brittenford’s own third-party products. The majority of the firm’s clients are small and mid-market businesses, nonprofit organizations, government contractors, professional services firms and international businesses. As part of this combination, approximately 30 Brittenford Systems, Inc. professionals, including chief executive officer Shereen Mahoney, have joined Wipfli. Founded in 1997, Brittenford Systems, Inc. has one office located in Reston, Virginia (Washington D.C. area), but provides financial system and accounting software implementations and support services to hundreds of businesses and organizations around the country.
Shereen Mahoney, chief executive officer of Brittenford Systems, Inc., said, “Combining Brittenford Systems’ deep implementation and third-party enhancement expertise with Wipfli’s broad consulting capabilities and vast resources will help us to continue to help our clients to succeed in the ever-changing marketplace. We are excited to join Wipfli and for what the future holds for our combined firm and all of our clients.”
The combined firm will have over 1,500 associates, including 184 partners, 35 office locations in the United States and India. (http://www.cwrichmond.tv)

Huron Consulting Group Closes Acquisition of ADI Strategies
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: IT Consulting Date: May 3rd, 2016
CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Huron Consulting Group (NASDAQ: HURN), a leading provider of business consulting services, today completed its acquisition of the U.S. assets of ADI Strategies, Inc. This is the first of two related transactions that will create one of the largest and fastest-growing Oracle application and analytics practices and allow the combined businesses to deliver the latest advisory and technology consulting services to a broader client base.
On April 26, 2016, Huron announced that it is also in the process of acquiring the international assets of ADI Strategies in Dubai and India. An agreement for the purchase of these assets is expected to be signed in the second quarter of 2016. San Francisco-based ADI Strategies is an Oracle Platinum Partner that helps companies in diverse industries work more effectively by designing, building and implementing analytic solutions to give them a greater understanding of their information assets. For reporting purposes, ADI Strategies will be included in the Huron Business Advisory segment. Terms of the U.S. asset acquisition were not disclosed.
(http://www.cnbc.com)

Bivarus, Inc. Acquires The Jackson Group, Inc.
Size: Undisclosed Industry: Healthcare Consulting Date: May 3^rd, 2016
Bivarus, Inc., a patient experience analytics company, announced today that it has acquired The Jackson Group, Inc., a leading healthcare-focused measurement and consulting firm. The acquisition expands Bivarus’s offerings to capture and operationalize patient and employee insights for healthcare organizations and adds CAHPS® administration and related consulting services.
The Jackson Group was founded in 1976 in Hickory, North Carolina, to provide measurement, analysis and consulting services to healthcare organizations, commercial business and government agencies with a focus on the patient and customer experience, employee engagement and workplace culture and community and market perceptions. The Jackson Group is one of only 37 vendors in the United States approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to participate in the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) program, which is a mandatory survey program for an ever-increasing number of healthcare organizations.
“It was crucial for us to find a partner with established expertise, a reputation for quality and differentiated service offerings in the healthcare field,” explained David Levin, Bivarus CEO. “The Jackson Group is the perfect partner, and not only do our teams complement each other operationally, we are aligned culturally. You can feel the energy among all staff to build, refine and deliver real solutions to our customers.”
“Bivarus has created an entirely new approach for delivering the insights our healthcare customers need to inform and improve day-to-day practices and long-term strategies,” said Tony Jackson, founder of The Jackson Group. “The relationships with customers that my family’s team has built over 40 years will benefit immensely from access to the measurement technology that Bivarus has built. It is an incredible opportunity for our combined company to have a continuous impact in healthcare delivery.”
Following the acquisition, Alan Jackson, President/CEO, The Jackson Group, will serve as Chief Customer Officer (CCO) of Bivarus, bringing his extensive knowledge to the executive team. In this role, Alan will have day-to-day operational responsibilities for maintaining and developing customer relationships that create value for the customer as well as creating a customer-centric culture. Tony Jackson will serve the company in a strategic advisory capacity. All other team members will continue in their current roles with the same organizational reporting structure.
By joining forces with The Jackson Group, Bivarus now provides more than 175 customer organizations with comprehensive, cost-effective, technology-enabled solutions to capture and deliver actionable data and insights. Bivarus will maintain its headquarters in Durham, NC, with additional operations in Hickory, NC. As a result of this combination, Bivarus now employs 54 people and will continue to bring on new hires in sales, product engineering and customer success.
(http://finance.minyanville.com)

Allinial Global to merge with IAPA International
Deal Size: $200m Industry: IT Consulting Date: May 04, 2016
Atlanta-based Allinial Global and U.K.-based IAPA International plan to merge to create the world’s third largest association of independent accounting and consulting firms. Financial terms were not disclosed. The merger will likely be complete by the end of 2016. The combination would create an entity with 300 members in 79 countries with annual fee revenue of more than $2.6 billion.
“It is clear that both associations share a committed focus to delivering an agile and exceptional level of service to their respective members and their clients,” Allinial Global President and CEO Terry Snyder said, in a statement. “We share the same vision for continuing to provide members with flexible, strategic, and groundbreaking tools to better serve clients with international accounting needs. I am excited at the prospect of a combined global powerhouse that truly values innovation and independence.”
(http://www.bizjournals.com)

Deloitte Consulting buys French IT consultancy Cleversys
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: IT Consulting Date: May 06, 2016
Founded in 1989, Cleversys is a Paris based IT consulting firm that specialises in Oracle, Qualiac and Cegid applications. Nine years after inception the firm joined Kurt Salmon (at the time Kurt Salmon Associates), and in 2011, following the merger between Kurt Salmon Associates and Ineum Consulting, Cleversys was spun-off as an independent entity. Two years later, in 2013, Kurt Salmon sold Cleversys to Samsic, one of France’s largest professional services firms geared at the HR market.
By acquiring Cleversys – the deal was formally closed early April – Deloitte bolsters its Consulting division, in particular its cloud, Oracle, Qualiac and Cegid service offerings. The move sees 30 Cleversys professionals join the Big Four’s Technology service area, taking the total number of employees of the unit to around 300. Didier Taupin, Managing Partner of Deloitte Consulting in France, says: “The addition of Cleversys boosts the expertise of our ERP and Analytics teams across a wide range of functional topics.”
Bertrand Jauffret, President of Cleversys, adds: “We welcome the merger with Deloitte France. The deal marks a great move for our client and employees. It will allow us to further develop and deploy our services and solutions, which will strengthen our position in the market.”
Deloitte is with a revenue of €1.05 billion the largest of the Big Four in France, followed by KPMG (€930 million). EY holds third spot, with a revenue of €855 million, while PwC concludes the Big Four landscape with a total fee income of €730 million. (http://www.consultancy.uk)

RedWind Consulting Sells South Dakota Wind Farm to CED
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Energy Consulting Date: May 12, 2016
Renewable energy consulting firm RedWind Consulting says it has finished the sale and closing of the Campbell County Wind Farm (CCWF) in northeast South Dakota to Consolidated Edison Development (CED).
According to RedWind, the approximately 94 MW wind farm consists of 55 GE 1.7 MW wind turbines and will generate approximately 429,000 MWh of power annually, enough electricity to power 25,000 homes. The project was sold to CED in June 2015, and all conditions subsequent to closing were recently satisfied. The company says CCWF achieved commercial operation in December 2015. The developers, Fagen Inc. and Dakota Plains Energy, contracted RedWind to act as the exclusive financial advisor for the sale of the project after RedWind secured and helped negotiate a 30-year power purchase agreement with Basin Electric Power Cooperative.
(http://nawindpower.com)

Infor buys Norwegian consulting firm Merit Globe AS
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: IT Consulting Date: May 12, 2016
Enterprise software vendor Infor has acquired Merit Globe AS. Based in Norway, Merit provides consulting services for Infor’s enterprise resource management system across Europe. The deal includes the acqui-hire of Merit’s 240 consultants as well as Merit’s portfolio of customer service technology.
Infor plans to merge Merit with its Infor Services group, which was formed earlier this year as a combined outfit for all of Infor’s consulting, support and cloud operations.
“As our projects get larger, move beyond edge applications, and address mission critical industry processes, Infor is investing in deployment and customer service,” said Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor, in a statement.
Merit CEO Erik Outzen will continue to lead the Merit team, reporting to Darren Saumur, global head of Infor Services. The acquisition closed today, and the terms are not being disclosed, Infor said.
Prior to Merit, Infor’s last acquisition came in August when it bought supply-chain management software GT Nexus for $675 million. At the time, Infor said it planned to use GT Nexus to create a global commerce cloud with end-to-end control and visibility. But more specifically, the deal set up Infor to better compete with legacy vendors Oracle and SAP for customers looking for specialized, hands-off business management systems.
(http://www.zdnet.com)