Yesterday employment services provider Manpower announced that it would acquire COMSYS IT Partners, a professional staffing firm. Both companies offer language services in their portfolio — Manpower is the fourteenth largest company on our list of top 30 language service providers (LSPs), generating US$55 million in language-related revenue in 2008 (we are working on our 2009 market sizing now). COMSYS will reportedly add another US$30 million dollars of language revenue, not enough to bring Manpower into the first tier of LSPs, but enough to increase its ability to supply translation technology services in North America.

First, the corporate numbers. Manpower will pay a total of US$431 million for COMSYS, or US$17.65 for each share of its common stock. Manpower will also assume COMSYS’s debt. Once Manpower integrates COMSYS professional IT staffing services business into Elan, its own European staffing business, the combined entity will generate total revenue of more than US$2.5 billion driven by more than 25,000 consultants on its payroll.

From a language services perspective, this acquisition will increase Manpower’s attractiveness to companies requiring expertise in enterprise-wide translation technology deployments, especially in the area of translation management systems (TMS). Over the last year, COMSYS has quietly been adding TMS-savvy professionals to its ranks, paralleling increased corporate demand for expertise in centralized translation technology expertise. As translation technology buyers come out of their recessionary mindsets, many will first look to temporary staffing solutions rather than to full-time employees, good news for companies like Manpower.