RWS Group


RWS Group, known commercially as RWS, is a British multinational AI solutions company. It provides intellectual property translation, filing and search services, technical and commercial translation and localisation, and develops and supports translation productivity and management software.

History

The company was created in 1982 from a merger between M.H. Randall & Partners and Woolcott & Co. In 2005 it acquired Eclipse Translations, a company formed in December 1996. In 2015 it acquired Corporate Translations Inc., a Connecticut-based life sciences translation and linguistic validation provider for a $70 million in cash. Then in 2017, the company acquired Luz, Inc., a US-based life sciences language services provider for $82.5 million: the company raised £40 million of the consideration by issuing 12.1m ordinary shares with the rest funded by a $26.3 million banking facility from Barclays.
In 2017, RWS purchased Czech-based localization provider Moravia IT for $320 million, more than doubling the size of the group.
On 4 November 2020, RWS completed an all-share combination with major competitor SDL, creating the world's largest technology and language services provider. The transaction was valued at approximately £854 million.

Locations

RWS Group headquarters are in Maidenhead, Berkshire, United Kingdom. The group has offices in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

Subsidiary companies

The company provides intellectual property support services, high-level technical, legal and financial translation services, and develops and sells computer-assisted translation software. Following acquisition of SDL in 2020, the business is split into 4 divisions:
RWS IP Services provides patent search, translation, filing and support services.
RWS Regulated Industries provides translation and validation services for medical drug trials, regulatory affairs, marketing, e-learning and training.
RWS Language Services provides software localization services, and commercial translation and interpreting services.
RWS Language & Content Technology develops, markets and supports software, such as , , , , , and Trados Studio.