NTT Data buying former Perot Systems business from Dell for $3.06 billion

NTT Data Corp., a unit of Japan’s former telephone monopoly, agreed to buy Dell’s information-technology services businesses — including the former Perot Systems of Dallas — for $3.06 billion as it seeks to expand sales outside Japan.

The acquisition would be by far NTT Data’s largest, increasing access to the U.S. and other foreign markets to counter sluggish economic growth at home. Dell, meanwhile, is selling some assets before completing its own record deal — the $67 billion takeover of software and storage systems provider EMC Corp.

Dell paid $3.9 billion for Perot Systems in 2009 with plans to expand in the fast-growing market for data services. Perot Systems, founded by H. Ross Perot several years after Electronic Data Systems was sold to General Motors, has won government contracts for healthcare IT services and work for the Defense Department, NASA, Homeland Security and Education departments.

“Perot Systems has a large base of U.S. clients in medical and other markets, so it fits NTT Data’s strategy to increase its presence there,” Hideaki Tanaka, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, said before the deal was announced. “NTT Data can win big contracts in Japan, but in the U.S., it is less well-known.”

Global rivals of NTT Data including Cognizant Technology Solutions, Tata Consultancy Services and Atos SE had also previously participated in an auction for Perot Systems that failed to generate a deal, according to the Nikkei, Reuters and Re/code, which all cited people familiar with the matter.

NTT Data is acquiring the Dell division to strengthen its footprint in North America, and enhance cloud service and outsourcing business, according to its filing Monday to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company will hire the 28,000 employees located mainly in North America and India from Dell, according to the statement.

NTT Data services are used at hundreds of hospitals and thousands of healthcare facilities in the U.S., according to the company’s website. The Tokyo-based company provides software and systems for functions including electronic medical records, surgery management, billing, insurance claims.

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 9:45 AM with the headline "NTT Data buying former Perot Systems business from Dell for $3.06 billion."