CSC to buy First Consulting Group

Computer Sciences Corporation has agreed to acquire First Consulting Group, an IT services company that provides services and products to health organisations.

CSC says that the acquisition of First Consulting Group (FCG) will increases CSC's US domestic and offshore healthcare expertise and service delivery capabilities.

The all cash transaction was for approximately £174m ($365m). The deal is expected to be completed during the first calendar quarter of 2008.

US-based CSC is responsible for three of the five local service provider contracts - covering the North, Midlands and East of England - under the NHS IT programme.

"This acquisition furthers CSC's Project Accelerate strategy by enhancing our expertise and intellectual property associated with the key healthcare vertical market and expanding our global delivery capabilities," said CSC chairman, president and CEO Michael Laphen.

He added: "With this action, we significantly strengthen our healthcare capabilities and offerings, as well as expand our healthcare presence in the United States, Europe and Asia."

Larry Ferguson, CEO of FCG. "CSC is at the forefront of the global IT services industry and a very strong player in the healthcare IT space, and adding FCG's deep healthcare and life sciences domain knowledge and history to the CSC family makes for a compelling combination.”

"By taking this step, we have notably accelerated our healthcare business plan and advanced toward our goal of transforming healthcare through the use of information technology," said Russ Owen, president of CSC's Americas Commercial Group. "The CSC-First Consulting Group combination reinforces our commitment to bring innovative solutions to healthcare payer, provider and life sciences clients and offers increased flexibility in our global healthcare service delivery capability."

FCG, headquartered in Long Beach, California, provides information technology services and products to health delivery, health plan and life sciences organisations, primarily in the US. In 2006 FCG had revenues of £126m ($264m) and currently employs 2,500 people worldwide.