01/07/2009 14h55
E-Commerce GXS purchases Brazilian Interchange
Gazeta Mercantil 01/07/2009
This week American GXS, which develops software to integrate clients and sellers in supply chains among companies, announces the total acquisition of the Brazilian Interchange Serviços, which operates in the same niche in the Country. The acquired company belonged to the financial groups Citigroup, Banco Real, Unibanco (currently Itaú Unibanco) and to the provider of technology services EDS, which was acquired by HP. Interchange now integrates Grupo GXS Brasil, and its services will be part of the Grid GXS Trading, the global platform of e-commerce of the American company, present in 15 countries. "Our focus is on the sectors of cars, retail, high technology and financial services", said Scala. Among the main global clients is General Electric, which uses its services in several business units. Interchange, on its turn, does business with more than 450 clients in the sectors of retail, public services and financial services, including the 50 major national banks. The economic moment has not neither prevented the negotiation nor impeded the company to achieve its best quarterly result in 10 years in the last period of 2008. "The crisis is positive for us since it forces companies to make the reengineering of their processes", defended Scala. Also, the service contracts are protected because they are continuous, since the acquisitions of inputs are part of the daily processes of the companies. As for the expansion strategy in Latin America, the executive admits he prefers to acquire companies than to count on the organic growth in each country, because it is faster and provides immediate scale.
