Persistent Systems to acquire Swiss firm Parx Werk

By Ankit Doshi

  • 21 Jul 2017
Credit: Manni Das/VCCircle

Indian information technology services provider Persistent Systems Ltd said on Friday it has agreed to acquire Swiss firm Parx Werk AG to strengthen its expertise in Salesforce software.

The total deal value is 16 million Swiss francs (Rs 108.45 crore), Pune-headquartered Persistent said in a stock-exchange filing.

The company, through unit Persistent Systems Germany Gmbh, will initially pay 8.5 million Swiss francs for Parx. It will pay an additional 7.5 million Swiss francs to the Parx management over three years depending on factors such as performance and staff retention.

Persistent said it will finance the deal through internal accruals.

Parx is a certified partner in Germany, Austria and Switzerland of Salesforce, an American cloud computing company that provides a cloud-based customer relationship management software.

This is the second acquisition by Persistent of a Salesforce partner since March last year, when it had agreed to acquire Australia’s PRM Cloud Solutions Pty Ltd for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 1990 by IIT Kharagpur alumnus Anand Deshpande, Persistent develops software solutions for the telecom, banking and financial services, life sciences and healthcare sectors.

“Data, digital, IoT (internet of things) and platforms are the foundation of software-driven businesses. Parx brings a deep business domain understanding that complements our technology expertise,” Deshpande said in the filing with stock exchanges.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is likely to close within four weeks.

Parx was incorporated in 2001. The company reported revenue of 8 million Swiss francs for the year ended December 2016. It recorded a 28% annual compound growth in revenue from 2014.

Prior to its acquisition of Australia’s PRM Solutions, Persistent had signed an agreement in January 2016 to acquire Citrix Systems’ CloudPlatform and CloudPortal Business Manager product lines for an undisclosed amount through its US subsidiary.

In 2015, Persistent had made two acquisitions. It acquired Ireland-based technology firm Aepona Holdings Ltd and US-based software company Akumina Inc’s content management services business.