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Getronics buys Wang Global

Services firm Wang Global says it has agreed to be bought by Dutch computer services firm Getronics for about $2 billion.

Kim Girard
Kim Girard has written about business and technology for more than a decade, as an editor at CNET News.com, senior writer at Business 2.0 magazine and online writer at Red Herring. As a freelancer, she's written for publications including Fast Company, CIO and Berkeley's Haas School of Business. She also assisted Business Week's Peter Burrows with his 2003 book Backfire, which covered the travails of controversial Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. An avid cook, she's blogged about the joy of cheap wine and thinks about food most days in ways some find obsessive.
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Kim Girard
Services firm Wang Global today said it has agreed to be bought by Dutch computer services firm Getronics for about $2 billion.

Getronics made a tender offer of $29.25 a share that was recommended by Wang Global's board, the company said.

Billerica, Massachusetts-based Wang filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992 and has been struggling since to make a comeback as a firm focused on desktop and networking services. The company said the offer represents a premium of 39 percent more than its average stock price in the last 30 trading days.

Combined, the companies will have revenues of about $5 billion, 33,000 employees, and operations in more than 44 companies. Wang reported 1998 revenues of more than $3 billion.

Under the deal, Wang Global chairman and CEO Joseph Tucci will join Getronics' five-person management board.

Getronics' Cees van Luijk will continue as president and CEO. Corporate headquarters will be located in Amsterdam.

The public tender offer will begin May 10 and end June 7.