The company was founded in 1988 by the merger of the British
CAP Group and the French company, Sema-Metra SA. In 1991 Sema and
British Aerospace established the
BAeSEMA naval systems joint venture to produce naval systems: it was dissolved in November 1998 when BAe purchased Sema's 50% share for £77 million. By December 1991 Sema had acquired the Cambridge-based consultancy Baddeley Associates, from which it created Sema Group Consulting. In 1997, Sema acquired
British Rail Business Systems for £27m which was sold off by the UK Government as part of the
Privatisation of British Rail. In the same time frame, Sema also acquired Syntax in Italy, formerly the IT Services division of
Olivetti, adding another important market to its geography. In 2000, Sema acquired
LHS for €5.1 billion to access its US telecoms software and services businesses: some analysts blamed the LHS acquisition for a profits warning in 2000 and a 45% fall in its stock market valuation. In 2001, Sema Group plc was acquired by
Schlumberger and was renamed
SchlumbergerSema. In 2004 the bulk of the company was sold on to
Atos Origin. The messaging unit was merged with Taral Networks and spun off as
Airwide Solutions. The Smart Card and Terminal Department (formerly part of Schlumberger Test & Transactions) became
Axalto, which later merged with
Gemplus International to form
Gemalto. ==Operations==