Schlumberger Ltd. to acquire Sema PLC for 2.28 times revenue
The Deal: Schlumberger Ltd. has agreed to purchase Sema PLC for $5.2 billion. The acquisition is a move by Schlumberger to increase its information-technology-services business: After the news of the transaction was announced, shares of Schlumberger fell $9.20 to close at $69 in New York Stock Exchange trading.
Discussion: Sema PLC is the No 2 European technology services firm. The company gets about 90 percent of its sales from systems integration and outsourcing for clients in the finance, telecommunications, government, transportation and energy industries. It also offers disaster recovery support and software for mobile telephony and electronic payment systems. Customers include Vodafone AirTouch, Club Mediterranee and Telecom Italia.
Schlumberge Ltd. is the second-largest oil field services company in the world, behind Halliburton. The company provides a full range of oil and gas services, including seismic surveys, drilling, wireline logging, well construction and completion and project management. It has spun off its offshore drilling unit, which is now part of Transocean Sedco Forex. Beyond the oil field, Schlumberger makes metering and payment systems for utilities and produces smart cards and semiconductor testing equipment. Its Ones unit designs, deploys and manages information technology and communications networks.
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