French IT consulting giant Atos has acquired Miner & Kasch, an artificial intelligence (AI) and data science consulting firm from Elkridge, Maryland. Financial terms were not disclosed.
This is M&A deal number 190 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2020. The pace of technology services M&A slowed amid the coronavirus pandemic in late March and early April 2020, but overall deal activity has picked up considerably in recent days. See the complete M&A deal list here.
Atos Acquires AI Consultancy: Business Background
Miner & Kasch, founded in 2015, specializes in artificial intelligence solutions that leverage machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and statistics.
Key customers include Fortune 500 enterprises and startup customers across healthcare, financial services, energy, manufacturing, construction, and engineering, the company said.
The Atos-Miner & Kasch deal should align well with ZData -- a big data and AI consulting practice that Atos acquired in 2017. Atos now employs more than 100 AI consultants thanks to the zData and Miner & Kasch acquisitions.
Miner & Kasch Acquisition: Executive Perspectives
In a prepared statement about the deal, Jerome Sandrini, head of big data and security, Atos in North America, commented:
“The acquisition of Miner & Kasch strengthens our digital portfolio to better serve our customers’ evolving needs. Atos’ data science expertise with deep vertical know-how benefits the customer with added technical skills and appropriate digital resources to rapidly develop use cases and to deploy and support data science applications on any environment of their choice.”
Miner & Kasch founders, Donald Miner and Niels Kasch, added:
“Together, Miner & Kasch and Atos will bring next-level AI and data science proficiencies that fast track company’s innovation strategies for their local and global ambitions. We continue to aid customers in the journey to becoming self-sufficient in their data practice, helping them create real-world solutions to efficiently execute business goals."
Atos: M&A History
Atos is a well-known IT consulting and digital transformation firm with 110,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of €12 billion (US$12.9 billion). The company is no stranger to M&A moves. Key deals include:
- December 2019: Atos acquired Google cloud partner Maven Wave.
- July 2019: Atos made moves to acquire IDnomic, and then completed the deal late that year.
- July 2018: The company acquired Syntel for $3.57 billion in cash and net debt.
- December 2017: Atos attempted to buy Gemalto for $5 billion, though Thales eventually won the buyout war.
- October 2017: Atos bought up three US healthcare IT consulting firms.
- January 2017: Atos acquired ServiceNow partner Engage ESM.
Atos also has a close working relationship with Dell Technologies.
