Announcement of Acquisition of IT Solution Business of IFTEC Co., Ltd. by SHIFT’s Subsidiary

SHIFT Inc. (“SHIFT,” headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Masaru Tange, CEO and Representative Director) announced today that its subsidiary, Ability Net Inc. (“Ability Net,” headquartered in Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Shoji Hatakeyama, Representative Director,) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the businesses of IT infrastructure design, construction, operation and maintenance, application development, system operation and management, help desk operations, and various worker deployment (hereinafter “the Businesses”) of IFTEC Co., Ltd. (“IFTEC,” headquartered in Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Mitsuru Hayashi, Representative Director) through kyushu bunkatu (spin-out and merger with the acquirer). Ability Net will changes its name to “IFTEC” after this transaction.
Note: Ability Net is a wholly-owned company of Barstride Group Inc. (“Baristride Group,” headquartered in Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Shoji Hatakeyama, Representative Director,) which is a wholly-owned company of SHIFT.
Note: Baristride Group owns 100% equity of ALH Inc. (“ALH,” headquartered in Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Shoji Hatakeyama, Representative Director,) which provides IT solutions through its subsidiaries including ALH and plans to facilitate collaboration between ALH and IFTEC post transaction.

1. Reason for the acquisition
On November 30th, 2020, ALH, SHIFT’s subsidiary, acquired 100% equity of Survage System Inc. (hereinafter “Survage”), which provides network integration services (hereinafter “NI”), in order to further strengthen its NI area of business, where ALH has developed and strengthened its business before. In this NI area, SHIFT Group can contribute to improving performance and convenience for agile development in committing to creating services and products that sell well. Ever since Survage joined SHIFT Group, ALH has been working to further strengthen businesses in the NI area and continues to provide services to meet the growing demand. As Survage has accelerated its growth, both ALH and Survage aspires to grow even further.

IFTEC, which will become a group company of ALH post transaction, runs businesses in the NI area. As IFTEC has its strengths in the downstream side of the software development process, such as NI , ALH strongly believes IFTEC has a strong affinity with Survage that has its strengths in the upstream side including design. As a group, they will be able to provide services both in the upstream and downstream processes in the NI area, high-value-added areas in the value chain. In addition, they can also expect to build a one-stop service provision system and work on projects together.

Moreover, IFTEC provides help desk services, including kitting. ALH can provide further seamless services to its customers by requesting the kitting of the equipment required for each project.
With IFTEC, ALH will continue to accelerate its growth as a group and work diligently to enhance the value of its services and to support its customers to create software services and products that sell.

Please refer to the link below for further information.
20220510_IFTEC_EN_fin