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| Paid Research - Membership Required |
| Consolidation in the Language Services Market |
| |
| Keywords |
| language service provider, language services provider, LSP, language industry, private equity, venture capital |
Abstract |
| If you’re a buyer of language services, how this industry drama plays out should prove very interesting in your planning. As the core suppliers of global products, websites, branding, and other international services jockey for position, you will find that the market will change over the coming few years. How it evolves will have a profound impact on how you buy the services that keeps your company able to operate internationally. |
Benefits |
| In General: Outsiders and non-practitioners often find the concept of a language services business hard to grasp. On one hand, translation and localization are absolutely essential to global commerce, branding, and communications. On the other hand, supply-chain participants occupy a low place on the corporate totem pole of visibility and awareness – at least until someone makes an expensive or embarrassing mistake.
One of our research goals is to reduce the “information asymmetry” of the global language services and software market. In its current asymmetric state, some people possess all the information relevant to a negotiation, business practice, or technology, but others know much less. Such situations lead to inefficient markets because not all the participants have enough data to make informed or rational decisions. Therefore, we believe this report will be important to a wide range of readers on both the demand side and in the supplier community.
|
| For Buyers: Users, buyers, and decision makers will find this report useful in understanding what drives market consolidation. Mergers – but especially acquisitions – over the last few years should give every buyer pause. Here’s why: the language service providers (LSP) you work with tomorrow may be the ones you chose not to engage today – it’s happened plenty of times before. Also, the project you just awarded to a crackerjack team in Toledo may end up being executed in China or someplace else you feel less comfortable with politically, ethically, or legally. Reading this report will better prepare you to deal with the inevitable surprises of globalization. |
| For Suppliers: Executives at LSPs need to be on the lookout for opportunities to buy, merge, or sell the farm. Prospective owner-operators aspiring to join the supply side of the industry will gain insight into how the industry operates and what buyers will be looking for in the future.
For outsiders looking in, this report provides an overview of how the industry operates at the macro level. General financial analysts will better understand the context behind market events, and thus be in a better position to make recommendations about this specialty industry. Similarly, academics, economists, and other observers can learn what is important to the enablers of global communications and commerce.
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Physical Details |
| Authors: Donald A. DePalma |
| Date: 31 July 2007 |
| ISBN: 978-1-933555-42-3 |
| Pages: 20 |
Companies |
| Aquent, Clear Capital, Comsys, euroscript, Goldman-Sachs, LCJ EEIG, Lionbridge, Logos, Logrus Language Alliance, Merrill Brink, Milengo Group, Moravia Worldwide, Roevin, R.R. Donnelly, RWS Group, SDL, SDI Media, Semantix, Skrivanek, thebigword, Verlagsgruppe Georg vo Holtzbrinck, Welocalize, WH&P, Wipro |
Table of Contents |
- Topic
- Global Market Demands Drive Language Industry Consolidation
- Who Should Read This Report?
- The Demand Side: Whoever Buys Language Services
- The Supply Side: Language Service Providers and Other Outsourcers
- Other Industry Participants: Investors, Financial Analysts, and Observers
- Analysis
- The Context for Consolidation
- It Happened Before, It Will Happen Again
- Balkanized for Good Reasons
- What Buyers of Language Services Want
- Rationalized Companies Will Dominate
- M&A Activity Will Not Abate
- Will the Language Industry Mature As Economists Would Predict?
- Predictions: Who’s Next on the M&A Altar?
- Dilemma: Artificial Short Supply Stymies Big Demand
- If I Wanted to Sell, Who Has the Money?
- It’s A Seller’s Market – No Wait, It’s A Buyer’s Market
- Advice to Buyers as the Market Consolidates
- Figures
- Figure 1: Highlights of LSP Market Consolidation over Last Two Decades
- Figure 2: A Sampling of Language Industry Acquisitions Since 2005
- Figure 3: Market Share of the Top 20 in 2005 and 2006
- Figure 4: Why the Language Services Industry Is Balkanized
- Figure 5: Globalocity – The Velocity of Global Content Transformations
- Figure 6: How Porter’s Five Forces Operate in the LSP Business
- Figure 7: Today's LSP Market -- a Barbell with a Popeye Bulge
- Tables
- Table 1: Market Capitalization of Publicly Traded LSPs in U.S. and U.K.
|
| Paid Research - Membership Required |
| Consolidation in the Language Services Market |
| |
| Keywords |
| language service provider, language services provider, LSP, language industry, private equity, venture capital |
Abstract |
| If you’re a buyer of language services, how this industry drama plays out should prove very interesting in your planning. As the core suppliers of global products, websites, branding, and other international services jockey for position, you will find that the market will change over the coming few years. How it evolves will have a profound impact on how you buy the services that keeps your company able to operate internationally. |
Benefits |
| In General: Outsiders and non-practitioners often find the concept of a language services business hard to grasp. On one hand, translation and localization are absolutely essential to global commerce, branding, and communications. On the other hand, supply-chain participants occupy a low place on the corporate totem pole of visibility and awareness – at least until someone makes an expensive or embarrassing mistake.
One of our research goals is to reduce the “information asymmetry” of the global language services and software market. In its current asymmetric state, some people possess all the information relevant to a negotiation, business practice, or technology, but others know much less. Such situations lead to inefficient markets because not all the participants have enough data to make informed or rational decisions. Therefore, we believe this report will be important to a wide range of readers on both the demand side and in the supplier community.
|
| For Buyers: Users, buyers, and decision makers will find this report useful in understanding what drives market consolidation. Mergers – but especially acquisitions – over the last few years should give every buyer pause. Here’s why: the language service providers (LSP) you work with tomorrow may be the ones you chose not to engage today – it’s happened plenty of times before. Also, the project you just awarded to a crackerjack team in Toledo may end up being executed in China or someplace else you feel less comfortable with politically, ethically, or legally. Reading this report will better prepare you to deal with the inevitable surprises of globalization. |
| For Suppliers: Executives at LSPs need to be on the lookout for opportunities to buy, merge, or sell the farm. Prospective owner-operators aspiring to join the supply side of the industry will gain insight into how the industry operates and what buyers will be looking for in the future.
For outsiders looking in, this report provides an overview of how the industry operates at the macro level. General financial analysts will better understand the context behind market events, and thus be in a better position to make recommendations about this specialty industry. Similarly, academics, economists, and other observers can learn what is important to the enablers of global communications and commerce.
|
Physical Details |
| Authors: Donald A. DePalma |
| Date: 31 July 2007 |
| ISBN: 978-1-933555-42-3 |
| Pages: 20 |
Companies |
| Aquent, Clear Capital, Comsys, euroscript, Goldman-Sachs, LCJ EEIG, Lionbridge, Logos, Logrus Language Alliance, Merrill Brink, Milengo Group, Moravia Worldwide, Roevin, R.R. Donnelly, RWS Group, SDL, SDI Media, Semantix, Skrivanek, thebigword, Verlagsgruppe Georg vo Holtzbrinck, Welocalize, WH&P, Wipro |
Table of Contents |
- Topic
- Global Market Demands Drive Language Industry Consolidation
- Who Should Read This Report?
- The Demand Side: Whoever Buys Language Services
- The Supply Side: Language Service Providers and Other Outsourcers
- Other Industry Participants: Investors, Financial Analysts, and Observers
- Analysis
- The Context for Consolidation
- It Happened Before, It Will Happen Again
- Balkanized for Good Reasons
- What Buyers of Language Services Want
- Rationalized Companies Will Dominate
- M&A Activity Will Not Abate
- Will the Language Industry Mature As Economists Would Predict?
- Predictions: Who’s Next on the M&A Altar?
- Dilemma: Artificial Short Supply Stymies Big Demand
- If I Wanted to Sell, Who Has the Money?
- It’s A Seller’s Market – No Wait, It’s A Buyer’s Market
- Advice to Buyers as the Market Consolidates
- Figures
- Figure 1: Highlights of LSP Market Consolidation over Last Two Decades
- Figure 2: A Sampling of Language Industry Acquisitions Since 2005
- Figure 3: Market Share of the Top 20 in 2005 and 2006
- Figure 4: Why the Language Services Industry Is Balkanized
- Figure 5: Globalocity – The Velocity of Global Content Transformations
- Figure 6: How Porter’s Five Forces Operate in the LSP Business
- Figure 7: Today's LSP Market -- a Barbell with a Popeye Bulge
- Tables
- Table 1: Market Capitalization of Publicly Traded LSPs in U.S. and U.K.
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