IBM has revealed its intention to acquire Sydney-based digital consultancy Vivant Digital for an undisclosed sum, with the IT giant using the merger to bolster its own digital transformation agency, IBM iX.
Vivant was formed in 2008 and has secured major contracts with Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Qantas, Australia Super and Paypal. The company operates in Sydney and Melbourne.
The acquisition will see Vivant chief executive and founder Anthony Farah take the role of digital strategy and iX lead for Australia and New Zealand.
IBM iX global leader Paul Papas said the acquisition stemmed from alignment between the two businesses.
"Customer experience is a critical element as our clients develop their business strategy," he said. "IBM shares a similar design, consulting and management philosophy with Vivant, and our combined teams will raise the bar for experience-led, design-driven, digital reinvention."
Vivant’s Farah said the move marked and exciting direction for the company's clients and employees.
“We now have scale and greater opportunity to address the growing needs of CEOs and innovation leaders willing to disrupt the market by seeking out new business models," he said. "We see it as converging the best of big with the best of small."
According to IBM, the two companies will “address the growing need of clients seeking transformation through innovative digital business models and bold customer experiences”.
In announcing the acquisition on its website, Vivant highlighted major disruption in the industry.
“The culmination of exponential disruption from AI, cloud, robotics, nano-tech and quantum computing will be disorienting to yesterday's businesses. Powerful new oligopolies / ecosystems are forming and dis-intermediating customer relationships,” the company’s website read.
“Few organisations will survive and most of the survivors are yet to exist. Everyone will need to digitise, transform and reinvent.”
The transaction is expected to close before the end of the year.
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
