Capgemini

Serge Kampf, a former salesman at Bull, founded Sogeti in Grenoble in 1967 on the idea of selling computing expertise as a service rather than selling machines. Acquiring CAP and Gemini Computer Systems in 1974–75 produced the unwieldy name Cap Gemini Sogeti, which was eventually trimmed.

Growth since has come mostly by acquisition: Ernst & Young's consulting arm in 2000, at the peak of the dot-com bubble and with dreadful timing, the American iGate in 2015 and the engineering firm Altran in 2020. Like its rival Atos, Capgemini runs large delivery centres in India, so the difference between a European and an Indian IT consultancy is mostly visible on the invoice address.