Computacenter has acquired the assets and customer base of Thesaurus Computer Services (TCS). The sale was agreed last Friday 27th November 2009. The deal was completed for a nominal amount and Computacenter management claim that the acquisition will not have a material financial impact on the company.

TCS has been the the mainframe services business since 1987 and has an enviable reputation as an extremely competent supplier of Z Series services. My take is that this is a very smart move on the part of Computacenter and will move them into the premier mainframe infrastructure player in the UK.

In a press release, Simon Walsh, Managing Director of Computacenter, commented:

“Thesaurus Computer Services will extend our existing skills and datacentre services as well as bringing incremental clients that don’t currently trade with Computacenter. The acquisition will also strengthen our existing relationship with IBM, and enable us to provide customers with a wider range of services for IBM software, storage systems, servers and mainframes.”

TCS’ annual turnover of £15 million is split 50/50 between services and product supply. The company specialises in services and solutions involving IBM enterprise servers, undertaking many large system projects every year. By combining the resources, skills and accreditations of TCS with Computacenter’s existing capabilities, Computacenter will become the largest independent ‘Z’ series provider for products and services in the UK outside of IBM.

“Thesaurus Computer Services has more than 600 man years’ experience of delivering mainframe support, which will be a great asset to our engineering and services team.” Commented Walsh.

Based in Milton Keynes, TCS has 200 customers and a number of long-term managed services contracts, which will be transferred to Computacenter.

TCS’ 46 members of staff will also be transferred to Computacenter under the TUPE process.

Mike Vinten, CEO of Thesaurus Computer Services, commented: “We share the same service quality and best value goals as Computacenter and also work with some of its current customers. These synergies will help to simplify the integration of the two companies, and ensure that our combined team can focus on delivering services and solutions that help remove cost and complexity for new and existing customers.”