Hello,

The English term “ingest” is “eat”. The normal translation to Spanish is “ingerir”, but in this case, “ingest” is using as synonym of “absorb” and the right translation is “absorber”.

ANALYSIS

When a company buys other enterprise, it “ingest the accounts” of the enterprise acquired.

This is normal in the acquisition of companies. In some cases, the most important of a rival are its customers. In those cases, the buyer buys other for the important value of its accounts of customers. It is a very important to gain market share.

TRANSLATION

Depending of the way that you translate the complete context, the translation will be:

- “absorber las cuentas” or “absorber los clientes” or “absorber las cuentas de los clientes”

- “absorbiendo las cuentas”, “absorbiendo los clientes”, “absorbiendo las cuentas de los clientes”

-“la absorción de las cuentas”, “la absorción de los clientes”, “la absorción de las cuentas de los clientes”

I hope this analysis, helps you in your work.


Regards

Domingo


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Note added at 1 hr (2012-10-31 12:39:40 GMT)
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VERY IMPORTANT:

In this case, account implies customer. For example, A and B are two rivals in A segment of the industry.

A has a lot of customers but it needs more customers to grow in the market. ( or to enter in a new market.)

B has also a lot of customers that have important value but its package of customers is smaller than the A package.

A has more money than B and it wants to grow. A buys B and takes all the customers of B. After A ingest the B accounts , its market share is: (A customers + B customers).

Sometimes, this trick is the only way to ingest (absorb) accounts that always were B customers, but A wanted as its own customers.

Also it is the way that A has to enter to the market of B, in the case that B is Europe and A is in US, but A has not customers in Europe.

I hope this explanation gives you more idea about this case.

Thank you!

Domingo

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Note added at 7 hrs (2012-10-31 18:50:12 GMT)
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VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF INGEST THE ACCOUNTS WITH THE CONTEST OF THIS QUESTION:

Again, Hello Scheherezade:

First, excuse me because when I wrote the previous explanation, I was not in my desk and I made some typing errors.

Now your subject:

To understand the expression “ingest the accounts”, probably we have to talk a little about Harold “Hal” Sydney Geneen.

Hal Geneen was a powerful businessman who masterminded 350 acquisitions and mergers in 80 countries. He also exerted strong influences in the international politics of the United States and other countries.

The subject of your question is about economy (macro-economy) because the famous CEO of International Telephone and Telegraph Corp (ITT) conducted businesses of businesses across 80 countries of the world. (business to business operations)

And the key point that we can mark in the context of your question is “acquisitions and mergers”.

The “acquisitions” are the purchases of companies by other companies. For example, like I explained before, if company A buys company B, this is an acquisition.

From the other side, “mergers” is when two companies marry and create a new company. For example, if company A marries company C and together create a new company with a new name or with the name of one of these companies. The new company could be company D, or the new A, or the new C.

One famous case of the telecommunication industry was when SBC Communications acquired AT&T Corp and the new company adopted the name AT&T Corp (the original name of the acquired company).

In all these cases (acquisitions or mergers), the new company takes the assets from both parts and put them all together.

Okay, but what are the assets of a company? This is a question of macro-economy. The assets of a company are:

. The capital plus other cash and papers investments
. The buildings, installations, factories, machines, production lines
. The licenses and patents
. The brands and registered names
. The inventories of products and raw material
. The human resources
. Customer accounts
. And sometimes other more assets

From the previous list, we pick up “customer accounts” or “accounts”. Each account in a big company has a lot of value, but during the process of acquisition, the buyer can lose the accounts if the mastermind of the transaction doesn’t manage the acquisition or merger in the right way. (For example, in the case of Hal Geneen, he was a expert in acquisitions and mergers and he cared a lot to ingest the accounts of the acquired company.)

Now I will give you some examples to understand better the expression “ingest the accounts”:

Company A has very good accounts in the government of the Country X1. The government institutions of Country X1 like to buy products or services from A.

Company B has very good accounts in the government of the Country X2. The government institutions of Country X2 like to buy products or services from B.

A and B work in the same segment of the economy. They have products and services for the same niche of the economy and their products and services are useful for both, the government institutions of Country X1 and the government institutions of Country X2.

But there is a problem. A cannot sell products to the government institutions of Country X2 because they are customers of B. They have “accounts” in the Company B. And they are happy with the services and prices of B.

A is bigger than B, but to be more efficient in its business, it needs to extend the package of accounts of customers. This is the point that we see in the context related with Hal Geneen. How to increase the “efficiency”? (1st investing in new technology and better products, 2nd looking for more customers.)

Now we continue with the point of A. Company A wants to sell products in the Country X2 but how to capture the accounts of B? Definitively, A needs to put the Company B out of the market. In this case, A decides to buy B. A pays for B and it receives all the assets of B, including its accounts in the government institutions of the Country X2.

When A takes all the assets of B, it has to “ingest the accounts of B” before the customers of B look for other providers, for example Company E.

Ingest the accounts of other company is not an easy process. Why? If the government institutions of Country X2 were happy with the customer service and products of B, probably they don’t want to be customers of A.

Each company has its own culture, its own criteria to manage its “accounts” and its own financial rules.

Initially, A has to use the same managers of the acquired B to show that all will similar that before or better, because A now is owner of the products of B and it has more products to offer the government institutions of the Country X2 that complement the products of B.

In the technology arena, one famous case of a recent complex acquisition was the purchase of Macromedia by Adobe (two competitors of the graphics software niche). To ingest the big customers of Macromedia, Adobe had to integrate the famous Flash software from Macromedia with Acrobat and other own products. With these efforts Adobe increased the efficiencies of its products and absorbed the customers of Macromedia to sell also its own products.

“Ingest the accounts” implies to transform a complete “account” of B in a new “account” of A. If A doesn’t make this effort, the customers of B go to buy to Company D. But “Ingest an account” implies also to take the debts of the government institutions of Country X2 with B and all the previous compromises of the customer and the old provider, like credit and financial lines, special discounts and more.

Now, do you understand why “ingest” in this case is “absorb” (In Spanish: “absorber”)?

If not, please write me your new questions based in this explanation through Proz.com. Thank you!

Regards

Domingo