Accenture recently announced its intent to acquire French cloud services provider Linkbynet. Saint-Denis-based Linkbynet specialises in cloud optimisation and managed services, cloud transformation and cloud security. The details of the transaction are not yet disclosed.

Ever since the pandemic, companies have been forced to accelerate their digital transformation journey. Accenture announced the investment in the cloud space last year to help its clients become cloud-first businesses and, in turn, unlock value at speed and scale. Accenture Cloud First team has over 70,000 professionals working to bring together Accenture’s industry and technology capabilities, ecosystem partnerships and commitment to learning and upskilling clients under one platform. Last year, Accenture Cloud First pledged $3 billion (over three years) to enable its customers’ move to the cloud. 

Thus, acquiring Linkbynet will be another strategic step in strengthening Accenture Cloud First capabilities and supporting its customer’s cloud migration and business transformations globally. 

Karthik Narain, Global Lead of Accenture Cloud First, in an official statement, said the company would add Linkbynet’s 900 team members to the Accenture Cloud First division. Linkbynet team would bring in deep cloud and engineering specialisation, managed services, sophisticated technology tools, and cybersecurity intelligence, he added.

Market Unit Lead for Accenture France and Benelux, Olivier Girard said, “Entire industries have been challenged to not only reinvent their customer experience but also their core offerings while imagining new business models for the future. With advisory and digital transformation experience across cloud implementation, security, management and optimisation, the Linkbynet team brings critical skills that would help Accenture clients adopt emerging technologies and scale them across their enterprise for strategic agility in a challenging business environment.”

Why Linkbynet?

Founded in 2000 by Stephane and Patrick Aisenberg, Linkbynet specialises in cloud optimisation and meets the needs and expectations of its customers via IT managed services and hosting, in addition to tailor-made, adaptable and hi-tech solutions. 

The company has become a force to reckon with in managed services, cloud, DevOps and containerisation, cybersecurity, and software cloud management portal. It is backed by Keensight, which invested 50 million euros in the cloud services provider to support its growth and international expansion in 2016. Since its inception, Linkbynet has expanded geographically and made its presence felt in European, Asian, Middle-East African and North American markets. 

Co-founders Patrick and Stephane said, “The combination of Accenture and Linkbynet’s unique working culture, values and technical expertise would enable us to better support our customers’ digital projects across multiple sectors while providing their organisations with the same exceptional levels of service and resilience they have come to expect.”

“We are excited about the opportunity to join Accenture in helping companies reimagine their business and rebuild differently for the benefit of all — from their customers and people to society at large,” they further added. 

Acquisition spree

In 2017 and 2018, Linkbynet acquired a leader in containerisation and DevOps practices, Treeptik, and cybersecurity company, Securiview. In 2019, the company purchased French open-source software expert Objectif Libre and cybersecurity consultancy Wise Partners.  

Over the last two years, Accenture has made a handful of strategic investments to expand and enhance its cloud services capabilities. In 2020 alone, the company invested close to $1.5 million globally on 34 acquisitions as part of its mission to acquire critical skills and capabilities in strategic, high-growth areas of the market. 

In June 2019, Accenture acquihired pure-play Google Cloud services provider in France, Cirruseo. At that time, 100 Google Cloud consultants from Cirruseo’s team joined the Accenture Google Cloud Business Group. 

Last year in June, Accenture completed the acquisition of French AWS cloud services company Gekko. The acquisition complemented the objectives of Accenture AWS Business Group in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands, strengthening its leadership position in the cloud and AI space. 

This year in February, Accenture acquired UK-based independent SAP partner Edenhouse, and cloud and digital transformation consultancy Infinity Works. In March 2021, Accenture agreed to acquire cloud-native full-stack development firm Cygni.