Sema Group plc was an Anglo-French IT services company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

. It was acquired by

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...

in 2001.

History

The Company was founded in 1988 by the merger of the British CAP Group and the French company, Sema-Metra SA. In 1991 Sema and British Aerospace established the BAeSEMA naval systems joint venture to produce naval systems: it was dissolved in November 1998 when BAe purchased Sema's 50% share for £77 million. By December 1991 Sema had acquired the Cambridge-based consultancy Baddeley Associates, from which it created Sema Group Consulting. In 1997, Sema acquired

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

Business Systems for £27m which was sold off by the UK Government as part of the Privatisation of British Rail. In the same time frame, Sema also acquired Syntax in Italy, formerly the IT Services division of Olivetti, adding another important market to its geography. In 2000, Sema acquired LHS for €5.1 billion to access its US telecoms software and services businesses: some analysts blamed the LHS acquisition for a profits warning in 2000 and a 45% fall in its stock market valuation. In 2001, Sema Group plc was acquired by

and was renamed SchlumbergerSema. In 2004 the bulk of the company was sold on to Atos Origin. The messaging unit was merged with Taral Networks and spun off as Airwide Solutions. The Smart Card and Terminal Department (formerly part of Schlumberger Test & Transactions) became Axalto, which later merged with Gemplus International to form Gemalto.

Operations

Sema was registered in the United Kingdom but headquartered in Paris. Sema originally stood for Société d'Économétrie et de Mathématiques Appliquées.

References

{{Authority control Defunct companies of France Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Software companies established in 1988 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange 2001 mergers and acquisitions fr:Sema Group