BBC completes £1.9bn IT sell-off to Siemens

The BBC has today completed the sell-off of its technology arm to German IT firm Siemens as part of a £1.9bn 10-year outsourcing deal - as exclusively revealed on silicon.com last month.

The move will see around 1,400 BBC staff will transfer to Siemens and the BBC said it expects to save £30m a year over the life of the contract.

Siemens will take over the running of the BBC's commercial IT unit BBC Technology but the publicly disclosed value of the deal only includes the services it will sell back to the Beeb and not the price it paid to acquire the unit.

BBC Technology will be also be renamed Siemens Business Services Media Holdings.

The sell-off has been the subject of strong opposition from staff and broadcasting union Bectu, and strike action that would have hit the Corporation's Olympics coverage was only narrowly averted on a legal technicality.

The deal finally got the go-ahead this week with the approval of the UK government's Culture, Media and Sport minister, Tessa Jowell.

John Smith, COO at the BBC, said in a statement: "The value and substantial savings created from the sale of BBC Technology and this procurement of our technology services is a significant step for us in ensuring the BBC is fit for the future and continues to create innovative programmes.”

But Bectu is still opposed to the deal despite achieving some concessions for the transferred staff. Gerry Morrissey, Bectu's Assistant General Secretary condemned the move as a short-term tactic to raise desperately needed cash, which could rebound dangerously in the future.

"This decision will come as a blow to our members in BBC Technology who have opposed this sell-off since it was first proposed. Despite the protection we have won for their terms and conditions after the sale, it could turn out to be bad news for some of them once jobs start to go, and it's certainly not good for the BBC in the long term," he said in a statement. "This isn't just the BBC selling off one of its 'Crown Jewels', it's a case of handing its central nervous system over to the private sector."