Update on BT in Germany
BT agrees sale of the Stemmer SME division to focus operations on the needs of global multinationals in Europe’s largest economy.
Today we announced that we have reached agreement to sell BT Stemmer, our system integration unit in Germany, to Bechtle AG, one of Europe’s leading IT providers. While the deal is still subject to regulatory approval, I would like to share with you why this is an important step for BT and good news for customers and employees of BT Stemmer.
This deal represents an important milestone on our transformation journey as we focus on the growing network, cloud and security needs of 800 multinational customers, simplifying our portfolio of digital services and strengthening our service and support for customers across the globe.
We will achieve all this by making the right choices that will ultimately benefit our customers, employees and shareholders.
BT Stemmer, or Stemmer as it will be known after the deal is approved, primarily serves small and medium size businesses, so it is much better positioned as part of Bechtle to thrive and grow in that market. Bechtle is Europe’s largest IT e-commerce provider with around 70 operations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This opens up new possibilities for growth and development for BT Stemmer as a company as well as its employees.
Global Services will continue to focus on serving multinational companies in Europe’s largest economy, while managing a broad portfolio of customers across the continent. Germany has been and remains a very important market for BT. We are committed to the market with a significant domestic network infrastructure, a state-of-the-art Security Operations Centre and a strong team of digital, networking and security experts.
Most importantly, we are committed to our customers in Germany. Some of the best known global brands from Germany rely on BT’s network to connect their operations and customers around the world.
A large proportion of our 800 globally managed accounts also have sizable operations in Germany. We continue to innovate and provide them with the best and most secure connectivity, cloud and collaboration services.
We are confident that the sale of Stemmer is a positive step for its employees, for its new owner and for its SME customers. It also allows BT in Germany to concentrate its resources on our multinational customers in an even more focused way.
