Mergers and Acquisitions, Channel markets, IT management, Enterprise, Mergers and Acquisitions, SI

Accenture Acquires akzente to Expand Sustainability Capabilities

attends WIRED25 Work: Inside San Francisco’s Most Innovative Workplaces on October 12, 2018 in San Francisco, California.

attends WIRED25 Work: Inside San Francisco’s Most Innovative Workplaces on October 12, 2018 in San Francisco, California.

Global IT consulting firm Accenture is acquiring akzente, a German sustainability consultancy. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is technology M&A deal number 427 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2022.

Headquartered in Munich, Germany with an additional office in Berlin, akzente is a global sustainability consultancy with experience in sustainability strategy, reporting, communication and stakeholder management, according to the seller. More than 60 akzente employees will join the Accenture Sustainability Services organization.

The akzente deal is part of a larger M&A strategy. Indeed, Accenture plans to spend roughly $4 billion on acquisitions during the current fiscal year. Roughly $1.8 billion of that $4 billion M&A budget was spent on 21 acquisitions during the first half of Accenture’s fiscal year 2022, CFO KC McClure indicated during an earnings call on March 17, 2022.

Accenture: Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Expertise

Akzente is the latest move by Accenture to expand its sustainability services and ESG capabilities globally and its third M&A deal involving sustainability expertise in two months. The other deals involved buying Avieco of the United Kingdom and Greenfish in Belgium. Additional Accenture M&A deals involving sustainability include Zestgroup and Umlaut. Rivals such as IBM also are acquiring sustainability-focused businesses.

The M&A activity comes at a key time. Some — though not all — major corporations worldwide are beginning to expand their business priorities beyond profits to increasingly include environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. A case in point: Mastercard plans to link all employee bonuses to ESG goals, Bloomberg reported. Similarly, some investors are starting to seek out ESG performance data before deciding to pump money into specific stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other financial instruments.

Accenture itself has made a Sustainability Value Promise to embed sustainability into everything the company does and with everyone it serves, the company said, using technology and leveraging partnerships, mergers and acquisitions to create business value and sustainable impact.

Accenture Acquires akzente: Leadership Insight

Christina Raab, unit lead, Accenture
Christina Raab, market unit lead, Accenture DACH
Sabine Braun, founder and managing partner, akzente

Christina Raab, market unit lead for Accenture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland commented on the news:

“We’re delighted to welcome akzente to our team, adding significant expertise to our sustainability capabilities while jointly extending our services powered by technology and human ingenuity. Helping our clients drive this change across all dimensions paves the way to a more sustainable economy and future for all.”

Sabine Braun, founder and managing partner of akzente, added:

“akzente is known for deep consulting expertise and thorough experience in all facets of sustainability for almost 30 years. Accenture’s scale and commitment to sustainability will enable us to extend our value proposition to new customers across industries and geographies. Being part of Accenture will lead to new opportunities for our people and our combined expertise will help our clients to integrate sustainability at the core of their business.”

Sharon Florentine

Sharon is a master technology storyteller and editor with omnichannel experience: books and print magazines, digital, webcast, blogging, podcast, live events and video and associated brand-specific social media content. From 1999 to 2003, she acquired and edited technology books and certification exam prep guides.

After a year spent in publicity and editorial at mass-market book publishers, she returned to tech publishing and, since 2004, explored B2C and B2B news, issues and trends in consumer, lifestyle, software, software development, AI, ML, networks, big data, hardware, security, storage, cloud, equity, inclusion, diversity, women in tech, career development, IT management, H-1B visa issues and immigration, education, training and learning.

Her previous role was as the managing editor at Techstrong Group in charge of Cloud Native Now, DevOps.com, Security Boulevard and Techstrong ITSM and their brand-specific social media. She currently serves as editorial director for CyberRisk Alliance’s channel brands, ChannelE2E and MSSP Alert and acting editorial director for SC Media UK. Drop me a note and let’s talk!

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