Getronics

Getronics is an international information technology (IT) service company, founded in 1887, Amsterdam, Netherlands. The business has gone through numerous mergers and divisions. In 2007, Getronics was brought by telecommunications group KPN. In 2012, KPN sold Getronics Europe and APAC to the Aurelius group and Getronics LATAM to OpenGate Captial.

History

Founding

In 1887, Amsterdam, the company was created as Electrotechnical Factory N.V. by Groeneveld, van der Pol & Co. (GVPC) The enterprise was involved with electrical installations, such as monitoring and control of public facilities and shipping.^[8]

Name changes

After the World War II GVPC set up a technical sales office Groenpol as a separate entity.

In 1950, the holding company GVPC changed its name to Groenpol NV.

In 1965 the distribution division became Groenpol Industrial Sales.

In 1968, Groenpol NV merged with another listed company, Geveke SA. The new name was Geveke & Groenpol NV. In 1970, SHV brought the holding company.

Geveke Electronics

In 1972, Groenpol Industrial Sales made a partial takeover of the technical trading Merchant & Co, the company started sales and service of computer peripherals. Meanwhile, the company also had offices in Belgium, France and Germany. In the same year the name was changed to Geveke Electronics.

In 1976, sales and service in the field of data communication products and systems started. A year later adding maintenance services to third parties.

In 1983, followed by a leveraged buyout by issuing new shares, interest of owner SHV fell below 50%. Afterwards, in 1985 under the name 'Geveke Electronics' it introduced on the Amsterdam stock exchange. In 1988, its name changed to Getronics NV. Getronics was traded by the AMX index abbreviation 23dGET. The two most important and successful operations of the company was computer networks and maintenance, less important than manufacturing.

Acquisition trail

After 1985, many smaller companies were acquired by Getronics. The ambitions were growing and in 1999 was Wang acquired, for 3.7 billion guilder. Wang, based in the United States, was active in 42 countries, this was strategically advantageous for working with Getronics's international customers. The acquisition was paid through a loan.^[9]

However, there was a crisis in the IT sector. In 2003, Getronics threatened to go bankrupt. This was partly due to the Wang integration. At this time Getronics sold in salary calculations, specialized company called Raet to AlpInvest Partners and Advent International. The financial ruin was averted.^[10]

On March 14, 2005, the acquisition of PinkRoccade by Getronics was completed. Getronics paid a total of €350 million in cash. With the acquisition, it became the largest IT service company in the Netherlands under the name Getronics PinkRoccade. Following the acquisition of PinkRoccade the Dutch business units were housed in one building, under the brand name Getronics. It was part of the global Getronics group. The name was shortened from Getronics PinkRoccade, on October 13, 2008, to the internationally well-known Getronics. On June 29, 2005, a stock exchange reverse stock split of 7 to 1 took place.

In 2005 the company achieved a modest profit of €4 million. The management wanted the US company CompuCom, that had emerged from the IT branch of General Electric.^[11] Getronics planned to pay CompuCom about 400 million euros, proceeds of the sale of the Italian division.^[11] However, a Getronics Italy million euro fraud was revealed. This hurt the company financially.^[12] On August 2, 2006 Getronics published its results for the 1st half. These were so disappointing the share price fell by 23.54%. After the announcement, the takeover was ruled out by the CEO. 2006 saw the company suffer because of automation, the fraud and a net loss of €145 million. In the same year PinkRoccade HR Services, the payroll division, was sold to Randstad for €65 million.

In early 2007, Getronics had approximately 24,000 employees in more than 25 countries. Around the beginning of July 2007 several companies look at taking over Getronics: KPN, Capgemini and an unnamed American private equity firm. On July 30, KPN made a bid of 766 million euros. The acquisition of Getronics was confirmed on October 15, 2007 by KPN.^[13] Getronics was no longer listed on Euronext after December 12, 2007.^[14]

Sell-offs after the acquisition by KPN

In October 2007, KPN acquired Getronics.^[15] Erik van der Meijden was contacted by KPN in 2007 to set up an IT service branch for KPN. Van der Meijden also took charge of Getronics, and took the place of Klaas Wagenaar. KPN immediately began divesting all Getronics activities which are not directly related to building and managing IT infrastructure.

In June 2008, Getronics announced that its US operations (formerly Wang) to CompuCom for cash and a minority stake in CompuCom. These activities include operations in Canada the United States and in Mexico.^[16]

On December 1, 2008 the sale of the business unit Business Application Services (BAS) was completed at Capgemini. The sale included 2,300 employees and customer base of BAS. Capgemini paid 255 million euros. Business Solutions, the last remaining unsold part of Business Application Services (BAS), consisting of 800 employees who were engaged in local government and healthcare sector found refuge with Total Specific Solutions which had previously Everest in the year taken from Getronics.^[17]

The part that deals with Microsoft and .NET development has come into the hands of Delaware Consultancy.^[18]

On March 31, 2009, the parent company announced a shrinkage of staff to 1,400 employees.^[19][20]

On June 17, 2011, Getronics CEO announced a further contraction of 2,500 jobs. Partly by offshoring, but also because disappointing results made it necessary that there should occur a reduction of jobs in the Netherlands within 18 months. On August 30, 2011, it was announced that 400 underperforming employees would lose there positions.^[21]

On October 1, 2011, the name Getronics is less well known in the Netherlands.^[22] The Dutch activities of Getronics first went under the name KPN Corporate Market, and from January 1, 2013 under the name KPN IT Solutions'. For international business the name Getronics has remained in place, including in Belgium under the name Getronics UK Limited.^[23]

Getronics Europe and APAC, Europe and Asia-Pacific , in 2011, achieved a turnover of approximately EUR 450 million with about 2900 FTEs. Getronics LATAM, Latin American, realized in 2011 a turnover of around 115 million euros with around 2,000 FTE's.^[24]

In May 2012, it was announced that KPN sold a majority stake of Getronics Europe and APAC to the Aurelius group, a German publicly listed industrial holding company. KPN sold Getronics LATAM businesses to OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm.^[25][26][27]

In June 2015, the remaining share KPN owned in Getronics Europe and APAC where sold to the Aurelius group.^[28] In November, Getronic won a five-year IT services contract from automotive services company RAC Limited.^[29]

Board Chairmen – CEOs

• 1983 – 1999 – Ton Risseeuw
• 1999 – 2001 – Cees van Luijk RA (from PricewaterhouseCoopers)
• 2001 – 2003 – Peter van Voorst (since 1986, Peter van Voorst part of Getronics' board of directors)
• 2003 – 2007 – Klaas Wagenaar (include CFO software company Baan)
• 2007 – 2011 – Erik van der Meijden (from HP, appointed by KPN)
• 2011 – September 30, 2013 – Steven Schilfgaarde (former CFO Getronics Erik van der Meijden coming from KPN)^[30]
• From October 1, 2013 – Alexander van der Hooft (former Head Service Line IT KPN ITS)^[31]

Getronics Workspace Alliance

Getronics Workspace Alliance is a jointly managed streamlined and standardised IT services consortium. Members include Getronics along with CompuCom, SPIE, Tecnocom, AGCN, Centric, InfoCare, S&T, Eire Systems, NSC and Topnew Info.^[32][29][33] Global Workspace Alliance 2.0 was launched in April 2016.^[34]

PinkRoccade

History

The origin of PinkRoccade was the 'Public Administration Central Mechanic', which existed since 1950 and was founded by Willem Jan Mühring. Later this place was called 'Rijks Computer Centrum' or RCC. It was a public company. Following privatization in the 90s of the 20th century it has diversified and expanded its services.

The privatization appears in three stages:

• First, an internal commercialization. By switching from a public to a N.V. structure the organization has compulsory VAT. With a 'client base' of departments of the organization was forced to look for internal cost savings.
• Diversification of products and services through both internal and external growth;
• Disposal of shares by the state in installments, in 1997 and later;

External growth took place through a number of acquisitions. RCC took 'Society for Computer Services' and 'Bouwfonds Informatica'. This latter had a number of smaller companies founded, including 'Data Process' from Amersfoort and 'L + T Informatica' from Eindhoven. This combination of RCC with the 'Bouwfonds Informatica' holding company continued under the name Roccade. The acquisition of Pink Elephant created the company PinkRoccade. Following the acquisition of TAS group this name was also put on the market.

Acquisition

In 2003, PinkRoccade had 8700 employees. After two layoffs, the number was reduced to 7,000 – a thousand of which where based in the United Kingdom.^[35]

In 2005, before the acquisition by Getronics,^[35] the Dutch State had an interest of 25.8% in PinkRoccade. The sale was completed for 355 million euros in March.^[35]

Legacy

PinkRoccade was the first in the Netherlands to use the management method Information Technology Infrastructure Library. In 2001. the company developed the method ASL as a method of managing applications ('model Looijen'). This method is now being further developed under the auspices of the ASL BiSL foundation.^[36]

The name PinkRoccade has returned to the company PinkRoccade Local Government ( 's-Hertogenbosch) and PinkRoccade Healthcare (Apeldoorn) which were taken over by Total Specific Solutions (TSS) KPN / Getronics in 2009.^[37][38]

References