Sema Group

Sema Group plc was an Anglo-French IT services company founded in 1988 by the merger of the British CAP Group and the French company, Sema-Metra SA. In 2001 Sema Group plc was acquired by Schlumberger to become SchlumbergerSema. In 2004 the bulk of the company was acquired by Atos Origin, but the messaging unit was merged with Taral Networks and spun off as Airwide Solutions.

Sema was registered in the United Kingdom but headquartered in Paris. Sema originally stood for Société d'Économie et de Mathématiques Appliquées.

History

Sema established the BAeSEMA naval systems joint venture with British Aerospace in 1991. The company, which produced naval systems, was dissolved in November 1998 when BAe purchased Sema's 50% share for £77 million.

In 2000 Sema acquired LHS for €5.1 billion to access its US telecoms software and services businesses. Some analysts blamed the LHS acquisition for a profits warning in 2000 and a 45% fall in its stock market valuation. [cite web | title = Sema puts its future in the hands of Schlumberger | publisher = Information Age | date = 2001-03-15 | url = http://www.information-age.com/article/2001/march/sema_puts_its_future_in_the_hands_of_schlumberger | accessdate = 2006-09-19]

References