Could it be time for a new start for Qwant? Everything suggests this with the announcement, this Tuesday, April 11, 2023, of exclusive negotiations started by Octave and Miroslaw Klaba (OVH, Shadow) and Caisse des dépôts (Banque des Territoires) for the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Qwant. But the project is not limited to the sole acquisition of the search engine.
The Klaba family and Caisse des dépôts have announced the creation of the Synfonium holding company. This platform aims to “to provide consumers and businesses with seamless access to the best European cloud-based collaboration services, including remote computing, cloud storage, search engine functions, video conferencing, and many other applications”. Synfonium will initially include Shadow services, including its cloud PC offering, Shadow PC, and its cloud storage application, Shadow Drive, as well as Qwant, the French search engine.
Shadow and Qwant, fragile entities
The ambitious project can already boast of relying on proven know-how. Octave and Miroslaw Klaba founded OVH, the European cloud leader, and acquired Shadow, a French company that developed the concept of cloud computing, allowing users to use the power of a computer without having it directly at home, via an Internet connection. Still, Shadow is still struggling to expand its customer base. Regarding Qwant, the market share of the French search engine was only 0.58% in March, far behind Google and Bing. The press release also specifies that the integration of Qwant will be subject to the finalization of the acquisition project and a “analysis of recent changes in the financial terms of its partnership with Microsoft”.
In the future, “Synfonium plans to add other services to the platform through a combination of internal developments, additional acquisitions and partnerships with companies that share its vision and values”, says the press release. Synfonium will be 75% owned by Octave and Miroslaw Klaba, the co-founders of OVHcloud, while Caisse des dépôts will hold a 25% stake.
“We believe that Europe has a large number of innovative software solutions that would greatly benefit from a platform designed for their distribution and optimized interaction. Synfonium is intended to serve as a host and accelerator for these technologies, starting with those of Shadow and Qwant”said Octave Klaba.
“Building a comprehensive cloud collaborative platform, based and owned in Europe, requires the right partners, and we are bringing together with Synfonium an exceptional group including Qwant and Caisse des dépôts, in addition to our pre-existing strategic partnerships with companies like OVHcloud. and Nextcloud”commented Éric Sèle, general manager of Shadow.