Accenture To Acquire Designaffairs, Boost Industry X.0 Suite

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) recently inked a deal to purchase Germany-based design consulting agency, designaffairs, for an undisclosed amount.

With more than 100 employees to date, designaffairs’ services include mechanical and usability engineering, prototyping, design research, brand strategy, industrial, user interface and material design and interaction innovation.The company will be joining Accenture studios, thereby becoming part of the Accenture Innovation Architecture.

On completion of the deal, designaffairs CEO Nico Michler will continue to lead the business along with Gerd Helmreich, managing director and Erlangen studio lead, Prof. Michael Lanz, managing director and Munich studio lead, as well as Moritz Ludwig and Lidan Liu, who lead the Shanghai studio.

Benefits of the Deal

The buyout is expected to boost Accenture Industry X.0’s design, innovation and product development capacities. Additionally, it should complement the company’s presence in Germany and China — the two key markets for Industry X.0.

We believe that proposed buyout is one of the several business moves taken up by Accenture in driving innovation with the help of evolving technologies. Accenture’s long-term prospects look promising, driven by sustained focus on product rollouts, continued investments in enhancing digital and marketing capabilities and cloud suite, along with major acquisitions and partnerships.

A glimpse of the company’s price trend reveals that the stock has had an impressive run on the bourse in the past year. Shares of Accenture have returned 28.1%, outperforming the industry’s gain of 27.1%.

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

Accenture currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Some other top-ranked stocks in the broader Business Services sector include Mastercard Inc. (NYSE:MA) , FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT) and WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) . While Mastercard sports a Zacks Rank #1, FLEETCOR Technologies and WEX carry a Zacks Rank #2.

The long-term expected earnings per share growth rate for Mastercard, FLEETCOR Technologies and WEX is 19%, 16.5% and 14.3%, respectively.

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