American company Ciber, which provides consulting services in the field of information technology, was sold as part of an auction organized by the bankruptcy court.
In April 2017, Ciber and a number of its US subsidiaries sued for bankruptcy cases in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, an application for protection against creditors in accordance with the procedure provided for in Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code.
The court approved the issuance of a Ciber loan of up to $ 45 million to finance business in the process of selling assets. The loan will be issued by Wells Fargo & Co.
Prior to filing for insolvency, Ciber entered into a deal to sell almost all of its assets in North America and India to Capgemini. It was about a deal worth $ 50 million.
The agreement did not include some of Ciber's debt obligations, as well as international transactions. At the same time, Capgemini expressed its willingness to take on some of Ciber's debt obligations. However, as a result, the deal was concluded with another company.
HTC Global Services, an American provider of IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing services (not related to the Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC), won the auction, offering $ 93 million for the acquisition of Ciber. At the same time by the end of 2016, HTC Global had assets of $ 99 million and debt obligations of $ 45 million.
Capgemini remained a "reserve contender" in case of disruption of the deal with HTC Global. In 2016, CEO Capgemini Paul Hermelin (Paul Hermelin) said that the company considered the IT consulting division Ciber as an object for acquisitions for several years.
Ciber is an international company cooperating with such IT giants as SAP, Infor, Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce.
Now Ciber has about 2,200 people, 315 independent contractors and 1,350 employees in Indian subsidiaries. In 2016, Ciber's revenue reached $ 610 million.
Founded in 1974, Ciber at the peak of business growth had a staff exceeding 8600 people. However, the long-term decline in demand for company services and the reduction in business in Europe have been hit hard by its financial performance. As a result, Ciber closed offices in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.