4. Jumping into Germany
2 January 2003
Although Computacenter has made several sizeable continental European acquisitions, its 2003 lunge for GE CompuNet will arguably go down as the most significant of the lot.
When the deal was announced in November 2002, Norris characterised the 4,000-employee business as “the German equivalent of Computacenter”.
It handed the LSE-listed giant a “leading position” in Europe’s largest economy alongside the UK and France.
Today, Computacenter’s German business is larger and significantly more profitable than its domestic operation (generating £2.9bn GII to the UK’s £2.4bn and £163m adjusted operating profit to the UK’s £59m).
The acquisition also showed just how patient Norris can be in his efforts to land a good deal – according to this FT article, Norris came close to buying the business (for a higher price) in 2000, before walking away during the due diligence process.
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