Capgemini is working towards an acquisition of French cloud computing player Prosodie that could lead to new proprietary solutions that could one day be rolled out beyond Europe.

 

The technology consulting and outsourcing company, which offers colocation and hosting at its data centers, is negotiating a €382m deal with with Prosodie’s operating group Apax Partners that Capgemini CEO Paul Hermelin said should be finalised this July.

 

"Hopefully we will have closed the transaction by the end of the month so we can start being operational in the market by September and prepare for 2012 together," Hermelin said.

 

He said he plans to expand the presence of Prosodie to the UK and throughout Europe, and "eventually globally". The company currently offers specialized multi-channel transactional flow management services for large corporate accounts through its data centers in France, Spain and Belgium.

 

"We already have joint projects in Germany, and will look at the UK market and we could even go beyond Europe," Hermelin said.

 

"Prosodie is a company that went through the recession still growing and adding new customers, and it always delivered double-digit margins so we want to protect that while getting the scale and growing out the business."

 

Prosodie has a strong focus on IP and coding solutions – skills Capgemini will take into its own data centers if the deal is approved. The company formed in 2006, and in 2010 brought in €172.3m in consolidated revenue and €26.3m operating profit.

 

It is known as a leader in its space in France for payment and hosting services.

 

Prosodie has also followed a strategy of growth through acquisition. It recently purchased hosting solutions companies Internet-Fr in France and Level IP in Italy, which will also move to Capgemini under the deal.

 

Capgemini will finance the deal in cash once authorization is given by French competition authorities for the deal to go through.