SMILE ACQUIRES THE DIGITAL AGENCY ADYAX

Smile, European leader in Digital and Open Source services, acquired Adyax, an agency which is the recognized European leader in the open source CMS Drupal and that handles large-scale projects. This marks the second significant operation of external growth of Smile since the investment company Eurazeo PME entered the capital in May 2017.

Renowned digital agency, Adyax leans on a team close to 350 experts specialised in the development of digital projects. Adyax has developed a very unique level of expertise in Europe. Thanks to this leadership, the agency addresses the most ambitious projects with open source technologies. Adyax has enjoyed full confidence from renowned brands (LVMH, Disney, Ipsos, Saint-Gobain, Le Monde, Carrefour, Valeo …) throughout the past 10 years.

Driven by a start-up spirit and an unmatched agility, Adyax develops the most innovative digital devices with a tailor-made approach throughout the entire value chain (from the strategy/design of services to the delivery and support) to ensure that its customers, which are major international groups and firms with high innovation potential, focus on their business. Adyax’s teams pay close attention to the user experience as well as the integration of disruptive devices that grant superior quality and performance.

The new combined Smile/Adyax entity aims to become the European digital leader over a 3-year horizon with a turnover of nearly EUR200M. Through their combined expertise, this merger will enable customers, French and international key accounts, to benefit from synergies and receive a wider support at every stage of their digital transformation (consulting, digital agency, development and integration, maintenance, training and outsourcing). Synergies will be gradually implemented to all the group’s business lines: Digital/E-business, Business Apps, Infrastructure and Embedded/IoT.

This acquisition perfectly forms part of Smile’s development strategy. On the one hand, it will strengthen its international presence and culture (abroad 600 people); on the other hand, it will reinforce its capacity to service the most ambitious projects for its customers.

Marc Palazon, Smile CEO, says “We are very pleased to combine our two companies. We are very familiar with Adyax since we have been following them for nearly 8 years. Adyax has grown rapidly on values it kept over time: customer respect, quality, very high level of expertise. Our industrial and business synergies are obvious. Together we give birth to a new European digital champion with nearly 1700 experts. We will make the open source the primary driver of the European digitalisation.”

Yann Perron, Adyax co-founder, is delighted with this acquisition: “It is a real satisfaction. We are very happy to join this ambitious project. The European IT landscape is changing and needs new leaders, pure players such as Smile, able to support large businesses in their transformation”

Maxime Topolov, Adyax co-founder, adds “This merger will result in an absolutely unique expert pool in the European digital market. With more than 600 Drupal enthusiasts, we will be able to deliver the best projects to our customers and to offer a greater range of services. Our teams will gain access to new opportunities in terms of development functions/responsibilities, technologies and geographics.”

Smile aims at a 20% organic growth in 2018. This exceptional organic growth combined with Adyax acquisition should help the group revenue (proforma) to exceed 115 million euros in 2018, compared to 84 million euros in 2017; ending with more than 35% of growth.

About Smile

With offices in 7 countries, Smile is the European leader in Open Source digital services, digital and open source expert, from consulting to design and execution.

Nearly 1300 enthusiasts contribute to hundreds of strategic digital projects for French and European key accounts with the most innovative solutions and softwares.

Smile masters the best open source products, components and frameworks as well as business challenges. Smile also supports its customers through every step of their digital transformation thanks to four vertical offers (Digital/Ebusiness, Business Apps, Infrastructure, Embedded/IoT) and a complete line of integrated services (consulting, digital agency, training, development and integration, maintenance and outsourcing).

In 2017, Smile made over 84 million euros revenue.

More information on: www.smile.eu

About Adyax

Founded in 2008, Adyax supports large European businesses in their strategy, design and development of their digital projects. With 350 experts, Adyax is the leader in the open source Drupal framework.

Adyax deploys cross-functional and agile teams for its customers, allowing an end-to-end approach of the most complex digital projects, with specific expertise in retail, luxury, hotel and industry.

In 2017, Adyax generated revenue of 13 million euros.               

More information on: www.adyax.com

About Eurazeo PME

Eurazeo PME, a subsidiary of Eurazeo, is an investment company dedicated to making majority investments in French SMEs with a value of up to €200M. As a professional, long-term shareholder, it provides its investments with all the financial, human and organisational resources they need for long-term transformation, and supports the companies in its portfolio in deploying sustainable, and therefore responsible, growth. This commitment is formalised and deployed through a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policy.

Eurazeo PME achieved a consolidated turnover of €1.191M in 2017 and supported the development of: Dessange International, Léon de Bruxelles, Péters Surgical, Vignal Lighting Group, Redspher, MK Direct, Orolia, Odealim, Smile, In’Tech Medical, Vitaprotech and 2RH. These companies are solidly positioned in their markets and led by experienced management teams.

More information on: www.eurazeo-pme.com

• Contact information: Simone Smith / simone@communicationforce.com / +31 (0)23 - 56 56 850