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SX3, the Northern Ireland IT services firm that announced some 240 job cuts last month, is to sell its training division to Parity Group for around STG200,000.
Parity Group is also an IT services group with a large IT and business training division, and the company employs around 130 in Northern Ireland already. Parity said that four staff would be joining its Belfast office from SX3 following the acquisition.
The move follows a series of downsizing measures at SX3, which sought voluntary redundancies last December and then announced a further 20 percent reduction its workforce in March. The firm's parent company, Viridian, said SX3 had to get its cost base in line with its sales forecasts, which had turned out to be over-optimistic.
Parity Group's training division offers IT training as well as business and management training, and last year the company opened a STG500,000 public training centre in Antrim. Barbara Greenway, managing director of Parity Training, said the acquisition of the SX3 business fit in with Parity's strategy of increasing the volume it puts through its public training centres. "The type of customers and the type of business [at SX3] is exactly what we want," she said.
As part of the deal Parity Group will take on the cost of the transferred staff, and will also pay a performance-related fee of up to STG200,000 based on business revenues for the coming 12 months. The fee will be payable over the course of the coming year.
Learning programmes including SX3's REACT (Relevant Experience and Computer Training) scheme will now run alongside Parity's learning projects, the companies said.
Noel Brady, managing director of SX3 Ireland, said Parity becomes SX3's preferred IT training partner for its Irish client base. "While training is no longer part of our core business offerings, we are confident that Parity will continue to provide the high level of service our training division customers have come to expect," he said in a statement.
Parity Group employs around 1,600 people worldwide, with offices in Ireland, the UK, mainland Europe and the east coast of the US. More information is at the Parity Web site.
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