Capita is beefing up its networking expertise by buying Crawley-based ABS Network Solutions Limited for £13.6m.

ABSNet is a specialist in IP-based networking, service management and storage with strong Cisco links. The company turned over £17.1m in the year ended 31 December 2007 and made a profit, excluding "owner's appropriations", of £1.6m.

Chief exec of Capita Paul Pindar said the buy would strengthen Capita's Cisco credentials, bringing with it a raft of Cisco certifications. ABSNet has 56 staff.

The RNS statement is here.

In other merger news, the European Commission has approved Capgemini's takeover of Business Applications Services from Getronics PinkRoccade. The EC concluded that competition would not be damaged by the merged business because there was limited horizontal overlap between the two firms, and customers in Europe would still have a wide variety of companies to choose from. ®