Accenture Acquires UK-Based Innovation Firm Happen

Acquisition expands Accenture’s front-end innovation and analytics capabilities to help clients introduce transformational products and services

LONDON & AMSTERDAM--()--Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has acquired Happen, a privately owned innovation firm that uses proprietary methods, frameworks and digital tools to help clients generate new ideas, products and services that drive business growth. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Happen is headquartered in London, with additional offices in Amsterdam and New Jersey, and has a team who possess a wide range of innovation skills, including strategy, design, ideation, insight and research.

Since its establishment in 2007, Happen has helped companies primarily across the consumer goods, food & beverage, retail and life science industries. The firm’s key skills include consumer insights where teams identify new opportunities and determine how an organization can commercialize them; and product and service innovation. Happen has developed many technology frameworks, tools and methods — such as StarMaker™, F.I.R.E.®, Asset-Out™ and Vision-Led™ — to help organizations grow and transform, including award-winning technology that can track and measure consumer emotions at scale.

For instance, the firm helped a healthcare company use insights gleaned from consumers to overhaul a strategy to market cough medicine; the new positioning took the product to the number two spot in the U.K., with one pack sold every 10 seconds. Happen also helped a leading grocery chain map how people move around its stores; making small tweaks to the customer journey more than doubled revenue from breakfast cereals and increased snack purchases by 40%.

Happen’s employees will join the innovation practice within Accenture’s Products Industry X.0 business, which helps clients use advanced digital technologies to reinvent their products, services and business models to achieve higher efficiency and growth in operations across the enterprise — including design and engineering, manufacturing, supply chain management, logistics and customer support.

“Bringing data-driven intelligence to clients’ decision-making, Happen helps companies tailor innovative products, services and experiences to create customer-centric businesses,” said Eric Schaeffer, a senior managing director at Accenture who leads its Products Industry X.0 practice and Supply Chain & Operations consulting practice. “The acquisition further enhances the analytics, design and engineering capabilities we use to help clients deliver relevance at scale to a marketplace of millions of individuals.”

Mark Cowan, co-founder of Happen, said, “Joining Accenture will enable us to scale our offerings and capabilities and deliver our services to an even greater range of clients. We’re excited to become part of one of the world’s truly great companies.”

Matt Prebble, a managing director at Accenture and head of its Products practice in the U.K. and Ireland, said, “The acquisition of Happen underscores our commitment to innovation. We continue to invest in the U.K. and Europe to grow our talent, creating new opportunities to work on transformative and disruptive projects and to help our clients apply the latest digital technologies to drive their product innovation and growth agendas.”

Happen is the latest in a series of acquisitions Accenture has made recently to expand its Industry X.0 product innovation capabilities. These include the acquisition last month of Pragsis Bidoop, a Spanish company with expertise in big data, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, and its acquisition in March of ?What If!, an innovation firm that uses an experimentation-driven approach to help clients incubate new products, services, business models and organizational cultures. Other acquisitions in recent years to drive product innovation capabilities for Industry X.0 include those of hardware engineering firm Mindtribe, strategic design consultancy designaffairs, and product design and innovation firm Altitude.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions — underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network — Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 492,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “likely,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,” “positioned,” “outlook” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These include, without limitation, risks that: the transaction might not achieve the anticipated benefits for Accenture; Accenture’s results of operations could be adversely affected by volatile, negative or uncertain economic and political conditions and the effects of these conditions on the company’s clients’ businesses and levels of business activity; Accenture’s business depends on generating and maintaining ongoing, profitable client demand for the company’s services and solutions including through the adaptation and expansion of its services and solutions in response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings, and a significant reduction in such demand or an inability to respond to the changing technological environment could materially affect the company’s results of operations; if Accenture is unable to keep its supply of skills and resources in balance with client demand around the world and attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, the company’s business, the utilization rate of the company’s professionals and the company’s results of operations may be materially adversely affected; Accenture could face legal, reputational and financial risks if the company fails to protect client and/or company data from security breaches or cyberattacks; the markets in which Accenture operates are highly competitive, and Accenture might not be able to compete effectively; changes in Accenture’s level of taxes, as well as audits, investigations and tax proceedings, or changes in tax laws or in their interpretation or enforcement, could have a material adverse effect on the company’s effective tax rate, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition; Accenture’s profitability could materially suffer if the company is unable to obtain favorable pricing for its services and solutions, if the company is unable to remain competitive, if its cost-management strategies are unsuccessful or if it experiences delivery inefficiencies; Accenture’s results of operations could be materially adversely affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; as a result of Accenture’s geographically diverse operations and its growth strategy to continue geographic expansion, the company is more susceptible to certain risks; Accenture’s business could be materially adversely affected if the company incurs legal liability; Accenture’s work with government clients exposes the company to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment; if Accenture is unable to manage the organizational challenges associated with its size, the company might be unable to achieve its business objectives; if Accenture does not successfully manage and develop its relationships with key alliance partners or fails to anticipate and establish new alliances in new technologies, the company’s results of operations could be adversely affected; Accenture’s ability to attract and retain business and employees may depend on its reputation in the marketplace; Accenture might not be successful at acquiring, investing in or integrating businesses, entering into joint ventures or divesting businesses; if Accenture is unable to protect its intellectual property rights or if Accenture’s services or solutions infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others or the company loses its ability to utilize the intellectual property of others, its business could be adversely affected; changes to accounting standards or in the estimates and assumptions Accenture makes in connection with the preparation of its consolidated financial statements could adversely affect its financial results; many of Accenture’s contracts include payments that link some of its fees to the attainment of performance or business targets and/or require the company to meet specific service levels, which could increase the variability of the company’s revenues and impact its margins; Accenture’s results of operations and share price could be adversely affected if it is unable to maintain effective internal controls; Accenture might be unable to access additional capital on favorable terms or at all and if the company raises equity capital, it may dilute its shareholders’ ownership interest in the company; Accenture may be subject to criticism and negative publicity related to its incorporation in Ireland; as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the “Risk Factors” heading in Accenture plc’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture’s expectations.

Contacts

Tara Burns
Accenture
+44 7850 435 158
tara.burns@accenture.com

Release Summary

Accenture has acquired the UK-Based innovation firm Happen.

Contacts

Tara Burns
Accenture
+44 7850 435 158
tara.burns@accenture.com