German firm SUSE opens new Brazil office, eyes Mexico
09/11/2023 09:00
SAO PAULO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - German open-source software
company SUSE is back to investing in Latin America after a
period of downsizing in the region, the company said on
Thursday, eying markets such as Brazil and Mexico to drive
growth.
SUSE, which owner EQT AB EQTAB.ST recently proposed to
take private and which underwent a management shakeup, said it
has already opened an office in Sao Paulo and will open another
in Mexico City as part of its effort to increase in Latin
American presence.
"We are back," the company's chief revenue officer, Werner
Knoblich, told Reuters. Knoblich was appointed to the role in
June.
"We have a real opportunity to catch up; I foresee Latin
America for the next couple years significantly (outpacing) the
growth of SUSE as a whole."
The company, whose products include SUSE Linux Enterprise,
Rancher and NeuVetor, said it was targeting growth of 500% over
the next five years in the region, driven by new investments and
demand for cloud-based enterprise applications.
"We are trying to do things a little bit different than what
the prior management did, and that's what you'll see now -
believing in being close to the customers," Knoblich said.
SUSE did not reveal how much it was planning to invest or
the base for the estimated growth, though its 2022 annual report
showed an annual contract value (ACV) of $21.7 million in the
region.
"Latin America had a very good growth before the downsizing,
we had very strong growth rates back in 2020, to 2021, to 2022,
and then it kind of dropped significantly in 2023 due to the
downsizing. We want to get back to that," Knoblich said.
Brazil and Mexico will be the first targets, but Knoblich
did not rule out further expansion within the region, citing
Colombia, Argentina and Chile as potential markets.
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo
Editing by Matthew Lewis)
((Gabriel.Araujo2@thomsonreuters.com; +55 11 5047-3352;))