IBM Completes PwC Acquisition

Just a little two months after unveiling plans to
acquire PwC Consulting, IBM Wednesday completed its
acquisition of the firm, creating a 60,000 employee-strong business
consulting services organization with operations in more than 160
countries.

IBM paid about $3.5 billion in cash and stock for the
PricewaterhouseCoopers unit, which specializes in global management
consulting and technology services. IBM combined the 30,000 consulting
professionals from PwC with its own professionals to form a new business
unit, IBM Business Consulting Services.

The unit is intended to provide customers with a full range of business and
technology consulting services that can leverage IBM’s services,
infrastructure, technology and financing resources.

Business Consulting Services will adopt IBM’s sector and industry
segmentation, and also PwC’s key solution areas. Ginni Rometty, general
manager of IBM Business Consulting Services, will head up the operation,
with three geographic leaders reporting directly to her. The geographic
leaders are Mike Collins, general manager of Business Consulting
Services-Americas; David Dockray, general manager of Business Consulting
Services-Europe, Middle-East and Africa; and Hideki Kurashige, general
manager of Business Consulting Services-Asia Pacific. All three come to IBM
from PwC.

The deal was approved by PricewaterhouseCoopers member firms and partners
globally, and has received regulatory clearances in both the U.S. and
European Union.