Fujitsu to buy Swedish reseller

Fujitsu Services is buying Mandator, the Swedish reseller, for $78m in cash - roughly one times annual revenues. The price, three Swedish crowns per share, represents a 30 per cent premium on Mandator's stock price in the ten days before the offer was announced.

The offer is recommended by Mandator's board of directors - which means that, barring any road crashes, Fujitsu has this deal in the bag. With Mandator under its belt, Fujitsu Services will be the sixth biggest computer services business in Sweden.

Mandator 2006 revenues were SEK 493 million ($75.5m). Customers include Ericsson, Sandvik, Volvo Car, Symbian and Tele2. The company employs about 560 people, with 390 based in Sweden, 100 in Estonia, and the rest in Denmark and the UK. Fujitsu's spells out the offer here. ®