Newly-Formed German LSP t’works Acquires Local Rival text&form

It may still be one of the world’s most fragmented markets for language services, but Germany has seen its fair share of M&A activity over the past few months. Leinhäuser Language Services merged with Macklin Gmbh in February 2019 and Transline acquired Medax in April.

Another deal just closed in Germany: t’works acquired text&form in early May 2019. According to a company press release, text&form “will continue to operate independently under current management and maintain its brand,” and will rely on the group for shared infrastructure, such as technology, customer services, sales, and quality management.

In the same press release, Managing Director and text&form Co-founder Thomas Senf said they felt that the time was right to secure a “strategically beneficial partner” for text&form’s future.

Berlin-based text&form was founded in 1996 and has a focus on software localization (particularly SAP), multimedia localization, and technical documentation translation.

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By contrast, t’works is a relatively new enterprise. It was founded as a partnership of three existing language service providers in 2018 backed by private equity firm Auctus Capital Partners, which holds a majority share in the company. Wohanka, Obermaier & Kollegen, Ü-Werk and Enssner Zeitgeist Translations were the original partner-LSPs. text&form now joins this list.

The combined t’works Group employs over 200 full-time staff. In November 2018, Marius Haisch, Associate at t’works, told Slator that the idea is for the founders of the acquired companies to stay on as Managing Directors and be “primarily responsible for strategy and operations” for t’works, and for Auctus to “mainly support with its experience in building larger groups through organic growth and M&A.”

Slator reached out to t’works for comment and a representative of the company declined to further elaborate on the acquisition at this time.