GXS Acquires Brazil's Interchange

Gaithersburg-based GXS has acquired Interchange Serviços, one of the biggest business-to-business (B2B) service providers in Brazil.

 

GXS, which already has a presence in Brazil, says the acquisition will accelerate the company's growth plans for B2B managed services in the world’s sixth largest market for B2B e-Commerce.

 

The company declined to provide the cost of the purchase, but analysts say the acquisition will add up to nearly 140 employees to Gaithersburg Company’s workforce.

 

In business since 1991, Interchange’s electronic data interchange (EDI) business processes more than 77 million transactions per year on behalf of its customers. And its largest investors include three multi-national financial institutions -- Banco Real, Citigroup, Inc., Itau Unibanco and EDS (News - Alert), an HP company.

 

Yet, according to other reports, Interchange Serviços will contribute less than 10 percent of GXS's overall revenue.

 

Interchange provides service to more than 450 customers in the financial services, retail and utilities industries, including 50 of the country's largest banks.

 

GXS plans to integrate Interchange's EDI services with GXS Trading Grid and leverage its global reach and portfolio of B2B managed services.

 

Interchange also provides solution for bank authorization network services to financial services customers, including capturing, processing, authorizing and managing payments collections through its CORBAN services platform.

 

"While GXS already provides B2B services to many Brazilian businesses, acquiring Interchange will expand our presence in Brazil and enable us to offer significant integration opportunities to global businesses seeking to expand their operations in Latin America," said Bob Segert, president and CEO of GXS.

 

In a recent report, AMR Research stated that Brazil is ripe for supply chain technology investment as the country has yet to adopt many of the newer collaborative models and supporting technologies that are taking hold in Europe and North America.

 

GXS’ B2B e-commerce and integration platform is used by more than 30,000 customers to exchange goods and services, gain visibility into global logistics operations and to synchronize product data. The platform, known as Trading Grid, helps customers automate global trading communities by shielding complexity from rapidly changing standards, eliminating manual and duplicative processes.