Acquisition of SDL by RWS enhances capabilities in Language Services and Technology

November 2020 - The acquisition earlier this month of SDL plc by RWS Holdings plc is a transformational event for both companies. The enlarged group is the leading language services and software company in the world, enabling customers to benefit from its increased scale, an expanded geographic footprint and innovative technologies that deliver world-class translation and localization services. 

The transaction benefits RWS and SDL customers alike, as it brings together broad capabilities across a range of language services, language and content software and IP services, combining the complementary strengths of RWS’s specialist technical translation and localization capabilities with SDL’s software, machine translation and AI capabilities. 

Richard Thompson, CEO of RWS, commented: “This is an exciting time for our joint customer base. The creation of the world’s leading language services and technology group allows us to provide a broader and enhanced offering to an expanded client audience. The combined company will have technology at its heart, underpinned with specialist capabilities, quality and an unwavering commitment to customer service. “We look forward to working with our valued customers to continue to enhance the way we serve their needs.” 

About RWS: RWS is a world leader in translation and localization, intellectual property support solutions and life sciences language services. Over the last 60 years, the company has built a reputation for quality, reliability and flexibility with its global team of translators, researchers and technical experts. RWS’s specialist divisions combine the latest technology, proven processes and highly skilled staff to deliver complex services at each stage of the product lifecycle to meet the diverse needs of a global, blue-chip client base spanning Europe, North America and Asia. RWS’s services are delivered in accordance with ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 17100, ISO 13485 and ISO 27001, and are trusted by world-leading companies across a range of sectors including technology, pharmaceutical, medical, chemical, automotive, and telecommunications. With over 3,000 employees, RWS has 35 offices worldwide. Its headquarters are in the UK and it is publicly listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L). 

About SDL: With more than 4,500 employees, and a network of 63 offices around the world, SDL is one of the world’s largest language service providers with market leading language technologies including Machine Translation and AI capabilities as well as web content management and structured content platforms. Over 25 years, SDL has built competitive differentiation by innovation in language services, providing advanced technology and artificial intelligence, and combining services and technology into solutions. Selling to a significant number of the largest companies in its target sectors, as well as over 1,500 language service providers and 270,000 freelance translation professionals, SDL’s customers include 90 of the world's top 100 brands (according to Interbrand’s Best Global Brands) and it translates approximately 1.3 billion words a year via human translation (and 300 billion per year via Machine Translation).

SDL’s language technologies are used by customers and by SDL to manage global projects and automate the translation process, and its web content management and structured content technology platforms are used by some of the world’s largest enterprises and organizations.