The French multinational Cegid, which acquired Portuguese tech company PHC, and French rival Silae announced on Wednesday a merger agreement to create a European champion in management software and treasury and human resources technology. The new group will be valued at over ten billion euros, with an enterprise value of approximately 8.6 billion euros, and will provide accounting, taxation, finance and payroll processing services to two million end clients and more than 15,000 accounting firms, issuing over 15 million payslips monthly across Europe.
The merger will bring together complementary skills, integrating Cegid's accounting and taxation tools, Shine's banking and digital finance services, and Silae's payroll and human resources management platform. The goal is to create a broader offering that automates processes and simplifies interactions between businesses and their accounting partners, enhanced by artificial intelligence tools and greater capacity for research and development investment.
Christian Pedersen, until now Chief Product Officer at IFS Cloud, was appointed CEO of Cegid and will be responsible for leading the integration. Pierre Cesarini, CEO of Silae, will continue to lead Silae within the group resulting from the merger. The major shareholders, led by Silver Lake, praised the operation, noting that since the initial investment, revenues and the number of employees have more than tripled, with one third of revenues now generated internationally.
