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EY buys Silicon Roundabout consultancy

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25th Aug 2015
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EY UK has acquired a 60-strong digital design consultancy called Seren, located in London’s entrepreneurial business district near Old Street.

The Silicon Roundabout-based business uses customer feedback to advise financial services, media, telecoms and gaming clients on digital design.

The acquisition is the first of its kind for the UK advisory branch of the Big Four firm, and follows related acquisitions such as Bedrock (a service design boutique in North America), Parthenon (the US/UK strategy consultancy) and Sweeney (a leading customer insight consultancy in Australia).

Steve Varley, EY’s UK chairman said the firm was committed to looking for opportunities for “inorganic growth”, especially when it identifies firms with cutting-edge innovation and a really strong talent pool.

“London, and the wider UK, is fast becoming a global leader in technology and digital innovation. The acquisition of Seren brings together EY’s world-class brand and global reach with Seren’s leading digital consulting capabilities and innovation,” Varley said.

David Gittleson, head of advisory for financial services at the firm, added that more traditional companies were now working hard to catch up.

“The expectations of today’s consumers have been shaped by digitally native companies that offer simple and intuitive customer journeys for their products and services.”

Seren chief executive Ben Langdon will stay on as head of EY-Seren and will become an EY partner.

EY-Seren will now start the development of an EY-Seren practice in the Middle East, building on the foundations that both EY and Seren have already developed in digital strategy and customer experience services in the area.

The Big Four firm backed away from consultancy after the audit independence measures imposed by the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley act. EY returned to advisory services in 2006 and rebuild revenues back up to 30% of its UK revenues.

EY now has ambitions to grow its global strategy consulting services to more than 2,500 professionals by 2020 both organically and via acquisitions.

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