14 August 2003 Hewlett-Packard has sought to bolster its burgeoning services business with the acquisition of Microsoft .Net consultancy Extreme Logic.
The acquisition will add web services development and implementation expertise to HP’s portfolio in the fast-growing .Net services market. It will also add 200 consultants to the HP Services organisation.
Since its founding in 1993, Atlanta, Georgia-based Extreme Logic, known as Omni Technology Centers until 2000, has built a strong present in the southern and eastern US and has attained Gold Certified Partner status with Microsoft.
The company has had annual growth in its consulting operations of 185% over the last five years under the leadership of former Dun &Bradstreet Software executive Wain Kellum.
HP boasts a vast services organisation of 65,000, which already includes 23,000 “Microsoft specialists”. The major services boost for the company was the result of its 2002 acquisition of Compaq, which catapulted it into the upper reaches of the IT services sector alongside IBM Global Services, Accenture and EDS.
But ever since its attempt to buy consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) collapsed in late 2000 HP has been on the look out for small scale services acquisitions. Even though HP again had the opportunity to bid for PwC in mid-2002, the consultancy group was eventually bought by IBM — for about $15 billion less than HP originally bid.
