CONET Acquires QUEST GmbH and Becomes One of Germany’s Leading Hybrid IT Service Providers

Hennef, February 24th, 2012. Frankfurt-based QUEST Softwaredienstleistung GmbH is the newest member of CONET Group. With the now completed acquisition of QUEST by group holding company CONET Technologies AG, the medium-sized IT consulting, solutions and services corporation expands its portfolio with the provision and placing of IT specialists.

With this move, CONET Group is establishing itself as one of the leading, so-called hybrid IT service providers in Germany, which are characterized by the combination of traditional IT services like consulting, software engineering and system integration projects with another key area of business, the placing of highly specialized, freelance IT experts. Due to this strengthened and extended portfolio, CONET Group with its currently 400 employees expects annual turnovers to exceed 100 million Euros, thus entering the top 25 of Germany’s IT systems and consulting professionals.

“Using external IT specialists in order to achieve a higher level of flexibility and professionalism in all aspects of business IT and processes remains a major trend both in private enterprises and the public sector alike, making IT staffing services a very lucrative market with double-digit growth rates“, says Rüdiger Zeyen, CEO of CONET Group.

And the acquisition of QUEST holds even higher potential for additional synergies: “Having the option to flexibly supplement running projects and service contracts with highly skilled IT specialists, we will be able to mitigate the negative impact of staff and skill shortages. And last but not least, we also expand the solution portfolio for our customers significantly, since we will now be able to offer one-stop comprehensive project solutions including management responsibilities together with short- and long-term placement of highly skilled experts, opening up wholly new market segments to our services and solutions“, Zeyen adds.

QUEST Softwaredienstleistung GmbH, founded in 1997 in Frankfurt, provides comprehensive IT staffing solutions with its 40 own sales specialists and a base of 40,000 freelance IT professionals. Every year, QUEST places continuously more than 400 external experts in its customers’ diverse projects. With many of its clients, especially large enterprises of the financial and communications sectors, QUEST holds a status as preferred supplier, making the recruiter and know-how broker with locations in Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and a Swiss office in Zug one of Germany’s top 10 IT staff service providers.

“QUEST holds an extremely strong and promising position with significant potential for further growth. In order to tap this potential by way of expanding our local reach and entering new market segments, we had been on the lookout for a suitable strategic partner for QUEST for some time, in which we were supported by the Hamburg-based private bankers of M.M.Warburg & CO“, QUEST founder Catarina Heppe explains. “In the end, we decided to go for a partnership with CONET Group. Deciding factors were not only potential synergies like the complementary supplementation of customer base and service portfolio, but also similar values in corporate strategy and philosophy“. Catarina Heppe will continue to accompany the development of the joint group, e.g. in her positions as consultant and member of the advisory board.

• QUEST Softwaredienstleistung GmbH