US consulting firm FTI Consulting is considering buying Delta Partners, a Dubai-based technology, media and telecom (TMT) consultancy with seven global offices, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
FTI has been discussing a possible merger with the boutique firm since before the coronavirus pandemic hit, a source told Bloomberg. Delta has apparently been seeking a partner to scale up and expand for a number of years. The source stressed that no final decisions have been made, and there is a possibility that no deal will be reached.
Shares at FTI were up 9.8% on Monday, with the company holding a market value of $5 billion. FTI was founded in 1982 and went public in 1996, when it was a narrower firm focusing on litigation support. In the years following Sarbanes-Oxley (2002), the company bought up PwC’s US business recovery services division and KPMG’s dispute advisory services practice.
Today the Washington, DC-based company provides services across corporate finance and restructuring; economic consulting; forensic and litigation consulting; strategic communications; and technology. FTI has more than 5,550 employees across 103 offices in 82 cities across the globe.
Delta Partners was founded in 2006, and provides business consulting, corporate finance advisory, and fund management services to the TMT sector. The company has grown to 20 partners and 200 employees across offices in Dubai, Barcelona, Johannesburg, Singapore, Sydney, New York, and San Francisco.
Delta boasts global reach and advanced in-house capabilities. These include an intelligence unit with industry knowledge and insights that support its business lines and investors; a dedicated customer experience practice to help clients capture digital opportunities; and a technology and operations practice to support clients with expertise on IT transformation.
Delta’s founder and CEO, Spanish businessman Victor Font, is currently seeking the presidency of soccer team FC Barcelona. Prior to founding Delta, he was a partner and managing director at management consultancy DiamondCluster International (now Oliver Wyman). Font spent time in the firm’s Brazil, Spain, and UAE offices, and was a member of the executive committee for Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.