Mergers and Acquisitions, IT management, Mergers and Acquisitions

Accenture Acquires SAP Cloud Migration Partner Zag

Accenture has acquired Zag, an SAP partner and cloud solutions technology firm based in New Zealand with additional offices in Australia. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, though a Financial Review report suggests Accenture paid about $45 million for Zag.

  • This is M&A deal 406 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2020. See the full M&A deal list here.
  • Accenture remains an extremely active buyer of cloud, cybersecurity, application, managed services, data and digital transformation consulting firms. A complete list of Accenture acquisitions is here.

Zag, founded in 1996, has more than 200 employees and offices in Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne. The company's SAP-related services include consulting, development, support, testing, and cloud migration.

Accenture Acquires Zag: Executive Commentary

Ben Morgan, Managing Director, Accenture New Zealand
Ben Morgan, managing director, Accenture New Zealand
Nick Mulcahy, CEO, Zag
Scott Hahn, technology lead, New Zealand, Accenture

In a prepared statement about the deal, Ben Morgan, Accenture’s New Zealand managing director, commented:

“By pairing Accenture’s global expertise with Zag’s local talent and insight, this acquisition will strengthen our ability to help clients accelerate their business transformation using SAP and Cloud technologies delivering more value from the new platforms. This move demonstrates our ongoing commitment to bringing new thinking, talent, and innovation to clients across the region.”

Nick Mulcahy, CEO of Zag, added:

“The combination of Accenture and Zag is a great opportunity for our clients and teams, and we look forward to offering an unrivaled SAP offering.”

Scott Hahn, Accenture’s technology lead for Australia and New Zealand, concluded:

“Zag’s experience in delivering cloud and SAP solutions for a wide range of complex businesses will be pivotal to the expansion of Accenture’s local technology offerings. Their extensive expertise and knowledge further deepen our networks and capabilities to meet the anticipated growth in demand for SAP and cloud services and we are delighted to welcome them to the team.”

Accenture’s Cloud Growth and M&A

Accenture acquisitions frequently involve Australia and New Zealand companies. Recent examples include acquiring:

  • data analytics and supply chain management company Icon Integration in February 2020;
  • business strategy and econometrics firm AlphaBeta in February 2020;
  • specialist government consultancy Apis Group in December 2019;
  • big data and analytics company Analytics8 in August 2019; and
  • cybersecurity and technology company BCT Solutions in June 2019.

Of course Accenture’s buying spree has not been limited to the region. The company has made at least 20 deals since the beginning of 2020, and dozens more in previous years.

Many of those acquisitions align with the recently launched Accenture Cloud First group, which represents a USD$3 billion commitment over three years. The division will help Accenture clients become “cloud first” businesses and accelerate their digital transformation to realize greater value at speed and scale, according to Accenture.

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