Accenture acquires Epylon

To capitalize on the growing market in state government electronic procurement,

Accenture has acquired Epylon Corp., a privately held provider of e-procurement

solutions for government and education institutions.

Epylon will be an Accenture affiliate company, wholly owned by the firm.

The acquisition, announced last week, was completed shortly before Accenture's

initial public offering in June, said David Wilkins, managing partner for

ventures and new business in Accenture's government unit.

More than 450 school districts and government agencies use Epylon solutions,

and Wilkins said that number should grow as e-procurement continues to remain

at the top of many states' priority lists.

"It's the natural evolution of [enterprise resource planning] systems,"

he said. "Half of the U.S. states are either buying or recently bought e-procurement

systems. It's at the front of the food chain at state administrations...and

with Epylon, we're providing both software and services to hold them all

together."

Epylon's senior management team and all of its approximately 90 employees

were offered continued employment "and all accepted jobs into Accenture,"

Wilkins said.

Jay Mohr of Accenture will join Epylon as acting chief executive officer.

Mohr is a partner and entrepreneur in residence with Accenture Technology

Ventures.

Stephen George, Epylon's founder, said Accenture was "the logical company

for us to sell to and we are extremely optimistic about this new chapter

in Epylon's life."

Epylon had revenue of about $4 million in the last fiscal year and will

continue to operate under that name. Financial terms of the deal were not

disclosed.