Volkswagen has sold its in-house IT services consultancy, Gedas, to T-Systems for between $473 million and $532 million, reports News.com.The deal, which still must be approved by antitrust regulators, stipulates that T-Systems will handle VW's IT for the next seven years under an agreement valued at $2.95 billion. T-Systems is owned by Deutsche Telekom.News.com characterizes Gedas's sale as part of a trend among large German companies to get out of the IT services business. Automakers, industrial groups and the main railway operator all turned their IT departments into stand-alone businesses, but for most, the consultancy approach hasn't panned out.

T-Systems' launch in 2001 was marked by the acquisition of a majority stake in DaimlerChrysler's Debis IT arm. The stated aim back then was to be among the world's top three systems integration players by 2004. Now some companies it is competing against are also thought to be circling other German acquisition targets.

Financial Times Deutschland daily said the price for the unit was just under 450 million euros ($539 million). U.S. electronics group EDS had also been reported to be in the running for the unit, which Volkswagen has said it wants to divest alongside its Europcar car rental business

Source: 1, 2Prashanth RaiTag(s):IT+Services