#36 RWS to Buy SDL: Unpacking the Language Industry’s Deal of the Decade

In this week’s SlatorPod, Florian and Esther share a hot take on❗the story of the week❗— if not of recent language industry history: RWS’s acquisition of rival SDL. The coming together of the two UK-based Super Agencies will see the creation of the first ever billion-dollar-revenue LSP, and TransPerfect stripped of its current title of world’s largest LSP by revenue

The two whizz through the YTD trading performance of RWS, SDL and the seven other listed LSPs that Slator tracks. After a predictable Covid-19-related dip between February and April 2020, which LSPs bounced back stronger than ever and which continue to limp? (Yes, the disappearance of the SDL brand will take the number of publicly traded LSPs from nine to eight, but watch this space for the upcoming listing of Australia-based Ai-Media).  

Esther talks about a patent translation-related fiasco in the US courts, which highlights, as one legal commentator put it, the need to “pay extra scrutiny to a patent application that has been translated, translators are human and errors occur.” 

🎤Special announcement 🎤Tune in next week for SlatorPod’s first guest...we are delighted to welcome Kimon Fountoukidis, Founder of Argos Multilingual, to the podcast.