Orange Business Services has acquired Ocean to boost its vehicle fleet management business.
The acquisition will enable Orange Business Services to become a leader in the French and European markets – with over 100,000 managed vehicles.
Founded in 2003, Ocean currently manages 45,000 vehicles for 2,000 corporate clients. Ocean will be an operational unit of Orange Applications for Business – the digital services division of Orange Business Services.
The new entity will bring together 110 employees, including a technical and development team of over 40 experts, and will be led by Jacques Riviere, the current president of Ocean.
“With the acquisition of Ocean, we are creating a new European leader in Fleet Management that will support the growth strategy of Orange Applications for Business on the connected objects and M2M markets,” said Thierry Bonhomme, executive director of Orange Business Services.
By 2018, Europe will represent a potential market of 35 million company vehicles, among which more than 20 percent will be equipped with a fleet management solution.
Orange Business has over 1.3 million connected objects in the areas of smart cities, healthcare, transport, etc.