Accenture, CSC and Siemens made the BBC's final short list of bidders to take over BBC Technology, and the corporation's $3.6 billion, 10-year technology service agreement.
The move to procure a new technology contract followed an internal strategic review of that identified potential annual savings for the BBC of at least $36 million to $53 million if its technology services were outsourced. The Beeb's own in-house tech group, BBC Technology includes the Colledia product line, and serves BskyB, DirecTV, ESPN an others. The division employs around 1,400 people and generates around $412 million in revenue. The sale is subject to the approval of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
New York and London-based Accenture employs around 90,000 people in 48 countries and generated net revenues of $11.8 billion for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2003. CSC, aka Computer Sciences Corporation, based in El Segundo, Calif., also employs 90,000, and reported revenue of $13.8 billion for the 12 months ending Jan. 2, 2004. Siemens, headquartered in Munich has 415,000 employees and generated around $27 billion in revenues last year.
