Price Waterhouse to buy stake in Origin

Price Waterhouse is to buy an undisclosed stake in Philips Electronics' $1.5 billion global consulting and technology subsidiary Origin.

Price Waterhouse and Origin formed a strategic alliance earlier this year to market and deliver third-party software, systems integration, management consulting and related business process consulting services worldwide. During the past months, the two organizations worked together on a variety of client and joint venture initiatives.

"We have concluded that Price Waterhouse and Origin work well together and they have synergy and compatible strengths," said Jan Hommen, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Philips Electronics N.V.

"They share a similar vision with common goals, and the combined strengths in IT services and management consulting will greatly benefit their clients."

In mid-September, Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse announced plans to merge their organisations, subject to partner and regulatory approvals.

The combined consulting resources of Coopers & Lybrand, Price Waterhouse and Origin will be close to 40,000 consulting professionals, worldwide.