The Hackett Group Acquires Leading Strategy, Operations and CFO Advisory Consultancy Archstone Consulting

• Acquisition Expands Hackett Group’s Offerings into Strategy and Operations and Creates an Enterprise Performance Management Powerhouse
• Terence M. Graunke, Chairman of Lake Capital and Archstone’s Largest Shareholder, to Join The Hackett Group’s Board of Directors

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Hackett Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:HCKT), a global strategic advisory firm, today announced the acquisition of Stamford, Connecticut based Archstone Consulting, LLC (“Archstone”). Archstone is a leading strategy, operations and CFO advisory consultancy with primary focus in the consumer goods, retail, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and utility industry sectors.

“Having access to Hackett’s proprietary intellectual capital allows us to further enhance our value proposition and serve clients in a way that is truly unique to Hackett.”

This acquisition brings many strategic synergies to Hackett. Through its 130+ highly skilled associates throughout the U.S. and Western Europe, Archstone will provide Hackett with new industry-focused supply chain and procurement consulting capabilities which will strongly complement Hackett’s existing offerings. Additionally, Archstone adds CFO centric capabilities which will significantly expand Hackett’s Enterprise Performance Management transformation capabilities and which will strongly complement Hackett’s existing Hyperion/Oracle EPM implementation offerings. Archstone will also further enhance the IT Strategy and BPO Advisory capabilities within Hackett.

The Hackett Group brand is recognized globally for its ability to use our proprietary benchmarking data and best practice implementation capabilities to help clients achieve sustainable performance improvement. Archstone uses their strong industry understanding to transform client organizations through the design and implementation of scalable operations and CFO centric solutions. As one combined company, Archstone will now broaden Hackett’s ability to serve clients across the entire enterprise.

With approximately 80% of its revenues and associates located in the U.S., Archstone significantly expands Hackett’s service delivery capabilities in the Northeast, Midwest and Western regions of the USA. Additionally, Archstone will further expand Hackett’s presence in the UK and in the Netherlands.

Todd Lavieri, CEO of Archstone, will lead the new Global Industries and Strategic Account Management effort for Hackett. “The Archstone - Hackett combination offers our clients a significantly expanded set of offerings along with our rich industry perspective and collaborative client service focus,” stated Lavieri. “Having access to Hackett’s proprietary intellectual capital allows us to further enhance our value proposition and serve clients in a way that is truly unique to Hackett.”

“Archstone adds many strategic dimensions to our organization,” said Ted A. Fernandez, Chairman and CEO of The Hackett Group. “In addition to a very talented group of principals and associates with strong industry focus, we are acquiring a leading consulting brand in the strategy, operations and CFO areas which strongly complement our existing offerings. We are also delighted to welcome Terry Graunke, Chairman of Lake Capital and Archstone’s largest shareholder, to the Board of Directors of The Hackett Group.”

About The Hackett Group, Inc.

The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global strategic advisory firm, is a leader in best practice advisory, benchmarking, and transformation consulting services, including shared services, offshoring and outsourcing advice. Utilizing best practices and implementation insights from more than 4,000 benchmarking engagements, executives use The Hackett Group's empirically-based approach to quickly define and implement initiatives to enable world-class performance. Through its REL brand, The Hackett Group offers working capital solutions focused on delivering significant cash flow improvements. Through its Hackett Technology Solutions group, The Hackett Group offers business application consulting services that help maximize returns on IT investments. The Hackett Group has worked with 2,700 major corporations and government agencies, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 73% of the Fortune 100, 73% of the DAX 30 and 50% of the FTSE 100.

Founded in 1991, The Hackett Group was acquired by Answerthink, Inc. in 1997. Answerthink was renamed The Hackett Group, Inc. in 2008. The Hackett Group has global offices in the United States, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

More information on The Hackett Group is available: by phone at [phone]; by e-mail at [e-mail]; or on the Web at www.thehackettgroup.com.

About Archstone Consulting, LLC

Archstone Consulting is a leading Strategy and Change, Operations and CFO Advisory management consulting firm, specializing in the consumer products, retail, life sciences and general manufacturing industries. Archstone Consulting helps companies restructure and reduce their costs, while improving their business processes and operations. Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, Archstone Consulting has offices in Amsterdam, Chicago, New York and San Francisco. For additional information, please visit us at www.archstoneconsulting.com.

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause The Hackett Group's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that impact such forward-looking statements include, among others, the ability of our products, services, or practices mentioned in this release to deliver the desired effect, our ability to effectively integrate acquisitions into our operations, our ability to retain existing business, our ability to attract additional business, our ability to effectively market and sell our product offerings and other services, the timing of projects and the potential for contract cancellations by our customers, changes in expectations regarding the information technology industry, our ability to attract and retain skilled employees, possible changes in collections of accounts receivable, risks of competition, price and margin trends, foreign currency fluctuations, changes in general economic conditions and interest rates as well as other risks detailed in our Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recent fiscal year filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.