HP completes acquisition of U.K. consultant Synstar

Hewlett-Packard Co. on Friday announced that it has completed its $293 million acquisition of UK-based IT services company Synstar PLC.

HP first announced plans to purchase the 2,600-employee company, based in Bracknell, England, in early August, saying that the acquisition would strengthen the computer giant’s support, managed services and business continuity services offerings in Europe.

The European Commission approved the deal one month later, saying it would not significantly affect HP’s share of the IT marketplace.

HP has been focused on balancing its customer portfolio in the services space and has actually been constraining its growth in the area, Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina said during a recent speech in San Francisco.

“We will not take on customer engagements that we don’t think we can make reasonable money at. We will not take on customer engagements where we think the customer is perhaps unrealistic about what’s impossible. We have been very focused on balancing our portfolio,” Fiorina said during a Banc of America Securities Investment Conference last week.

The Synstar acquisition is the third service-related acquisition HP has made in recent months. In May it announced that it was acquiring two IT service management firms, ManageOne of Dallas and CEC Europe Service Management Ltd. of the U.K.

“We have become, in the last two years, the clear alternative to IBM (Corp.) in the managed services or outsourcing space,” Fiorina said.

Synstar operates in the U.K., Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, HP said in a statement. The company has around 1,500 customers and reported a consolidated profit of  $15.6 million on revenue of $401 million for the year ended Sept. 30, 2003, HP said.