Tieto acquires Smilehouse - drives Customer Experience Management growth by strengthening its commerce capabilities

Tieto Corporation         STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE        3 December 2015 at 9.00 EET

Tieto has signed an agreement to acquire Smilehouse, the largest Finnish solution provider of multichannel commerce with operations primarily in Finland and Sweden. Through the acquisition, Tieto strengthens its position as one of the leading Nordic players in digital Customer Experience Management and supports the company’s aim to accelerate growth in this market.

Established in 1999, Smilehouse is a leading Finnish vendor in the digital commerce area, with a total of over 100 employees and partners. The company has experience of over 100 commerce projects, including 15 large-scale hybris-based implementations. Smilehouse’s team of around 75 professionals will join Tieto’s start-up for Customer Experience Management (CEM), with the objective of helping enterprises create seamless digital customer experiences. With the combined strong expertise of Tieto and Smilehouse, Tieto can expand its customer experience solutions to a larger group of customers, reaching from retail and financial services to manufacturing, telecom and energy.

“I am very excited to join forces with Smilehouse. With our combined expertise, we can provide even more comprehensive omni-channel solutions and services to our customers, enabling them to provide state-of-the-art digitally enabled experiences,” says Mikko Leinonen, Head of Customer Experience Management. “I warmly welcome all Smilehouse employees to our dynamic CEM team to create innovative solutions for our customers.”

“Tieto invests heavily in Customer Experience Management, with a clear vision and concepts that are very appealing to us and in line with our focus and direction at Smilehouse. This is an excellent opportunity for us to grow and provide customers with more versatile services through Tieto’s approach and broad IT expertise,” says Jaakko Hartikainen, CEO of Smilehouse.

Jaakko Hartikainen will be a member of the CEM unit’s Leadership Team. He will be heading the strengthened Commerce unit as well as the Retail Experience and Industrial Experience businesses.

The Nordic market for Customer Experience Management is anticipated to grow by around 20% annually. The acquisition substantially increases Tieto’s sales in this area. Smilehouse’s sales amounts to around EUR 10 million and is anticipated to grow faster than the market. Profitability is at the same level as that of Tieto. The parties have agreed not to disclose the financial terms of the transaction. The company will be consolidated to Tieto as from 1 December.  
 

For further information, please contact:

Mikko Leinonen, Head of Customer Experience Management, +358 207 267 785, mikko.leinonen(at)tieto.com
Jaakko Hartikainen, CEO of Smilehouse, +358 44 3500 445, jaakko.hartikainen(at)smilehouse.fi

Media:
Kia Haring, Head of Global Communications, tel. +358 40 765 3700, kia.haring(at)tieto.com

Investors:
Lasse Heinonen, CFO, tel. +358 2072 66329, +358 50 393 4950, lasse.heinonen(at)tieto.com

TIETO CORPORATION

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Tieto is the largest IT services company in the Nordics providing full lifecycle IT services. We also provide global product development services for companies in the communications and embedded technologies arena. Through industry insight, technology vision, and innovative thinking, Tieto proactively strives to inspire and engage our customers in finding new ways of accelerating their business.

Building on a strong Nordic heritage, Tieto combines global capabilities with local presence. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Tieto has over 13 000 experts in more than 20 countries. Turnover is approximately EUR 1.5 billion. Tieto’s shares are listed on NASDAQ in Helsinki and Stockholm. www.tieto.com