European Agency Approves Adecco Acquisition of MPS

The European Commission approved Adecco SA’s acquisition of MPS Group Inc., saying the deal would not hinder competition in the European Economic Area.

Adecco’s and MPS’ operations significantly overlap only in providing information technology, legal and financial workers in the United Kingdom, according to the European Commission.

However, “the proposed acquisition would not raise competition concerns in these sectors as the merged entity would continue to be constrained by strong competitors,” the commission wrote Friday, December 18.

Adecco announced its offer to buy MPS in October for $13.80 a share in a deal valued at $1.3 billion.

MPS ranked No. 13 on Staffing Industry Analysts’ list of largest U.S. staffing firms. In addition to providing professional staffing, MPS also operates the Beeline vendor management system.

Adecco is the world’s largest staffing firm in terms of revenue.

Filed by Staffing Industry Analysts, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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