Austin-Based Zilker Labs Inc. Acquired By Consulting Giant EY

AUSTIN, TX — Austin-based company Zilker Labs Inc., a privately held semiconductor firm, has been acquired by EY — one of the largest consulting firms in the world — officials confirmed.

This move, company officials said in an advisory, strengthens EY’s abilities to meet the increased demand for e-commerce, digital applications, enterprise integration and cloud services. "As businesses continue to tackle large-scale transformation initiatives, this acquisition offers EY clients the ability to build technology-enabled marketing solutions focused on data-driven, personalized customer experiences," officials wrote.

EY Americas Vice Chair, Consulting Steve Payne added in a prepared statement: “The addition of Zilker will strengthen how EY delivers end-to-end transformation for our clients, from strategy and design to technology implementation. Zilker’s global delivery approach and customer-centric culture also strongly match with our core values of exceptional client service and high-performance teaming.”

Zilker is described as a "fabless" firm, a type of manufacturing centered on the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing their fabrication (or fab) to specialized makers known as semiconductor foundries that are typically (but not exclusively) located in China and Taiwan.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The 360 employees of the locally based firm spread out across the U.S., Canada, Serbia and India will join the Digital and Emerging Technologies group, officials said. The new joint team will leverage Zilker’s sector experience in consumer products, health care, financial services, energy and utilities officials added.

Managing Partner and CEO of Zilker Technology Rob Thomas described the premium placed on delivering value through customer experiences that is at the core of the company's culture. The firm’s offerings translate demand insights into personally relevant experiences for brands’ best customers and prospects, he added.

“Our mission has always been to be a catalyst for growth, aiming to drive material business impact for our clients,” Thomas said. “Joining the EY organization further enables us to live out this goal and create long-term value for leading organizations across the world.”

The acquisition will also serve to enhance how EY teams deliver services through the EY alliance ecosystem, company officials noted. Zilker had developed its own strategic relationships with existing EY alliance organizations — including Adobe, IBM and Dell Boomi — that will help the acquiring firm merge resulting technologies and insights to help clients digitally transform to be more agile, resilient and innovative, officials said.

Amit Ahuja, vice president, Business Development and Strategy at Adobe, spoke of the resulting economies of scale resulting from the deal: “The rapid growth of the EY-Adobe Alliance is a testament to the EY focus on driving business value and building integrated, intuitive and engaging customer experiences,” Ahuja said. “Bringing the EY network and Zilker Technology together will accelerate the goals Adobe shares with both organizations, which are focused on helping businesses drive growth through strategic design, infrastructure, technology and implementation.”

EY Global Alliance and Ecosystem Leader Greg Sarafin expounded: “We are excited to see EY and Zilker coming together. The EY-IBM Alliance is expanding rapidly, and we believe the addition of Zilker will help our clients receive greater business value and innovation as they tackle complex challenges with the help of Hybrid Cloud and AI.”

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