Accenture Plc. on Friday said Fortune 500 companies unnerved by global conflicts and tariff wars are holding back technology spending, prompting it to issue a muted guidance for the current quarter.The subdued guidance rattled investors, with shares of the world’s largest information technology outsourcer trading 7.6% at $283 at 8:30pm Indian time. The guidance could signal further challenges for India’s $283 billion IT services companies, which started their fiscal year on a weak note.Also Read | Accenture and Infosys have beaten TCS. What is N. Chandrasekaran planning?Accenture recorded revenue growth—6% sequentially and 7.7% annually—to $17.73 billion, but the company expects slower days ahead. The company expects revenue of $17-17.6 billion in the fourth quarter (March to May). Accenture follows a September-August financial year while Indian IT firms follow an April-March calendar.The company cut its headcount by 10,000 to end with 790,000 employees last quarter.Accenture flagged the threat to businesses from US president Donald Trump’s tariffs and policy flip-flops, coupled with the Iran-Israel conflict. This implies that new business might be harder to get for Indian IT outsourcers, who issue their quarterly earnings next month.Also Read | Clients in wait and watch mode, will take a quarter to gauge impact of tariffs: Accenture“As we shared last quarter, we continue to see a significantly elevated level of uncertainty in the global economic and geopolitical environment as compared to calendar year 2024,” said Julie Sweet, chair and chief executive of Accenture, during the company’s post-earnings conference call.The IT services company did not raise the upper end of its growth guidance of 7% for the full year, reflecting its views on the macroeconomic environment.Accenture expects to spend up to $1.5 billion on acquisitions during this fiscal. The management said that about 3% of its full-year growth of 7% is expected from acquisitions.Sweet added that clients were faced with multiple challenges at once.Also Read | How Accenture leapt ahead of Indian IT firms with large deals“In every boardroom and every industry, our clients are not facing a single challenge—They are facing everything at once, economic volatility, geopolitical complexity, major shifts in customer behavior,” she said.Accenture’s dim outlook stokes further uncertainty for India’s five largest software service providers including Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd and Tech Mahindra Ltd, which struggled to bag deals valued at over $1 billion last fiscal. A dwindling large order book is further expected to raise questions on the readiness of Indian IT to weather the macroeconomic storm.A third of Accenture’s quarterly revenue came from its software products business.Sweet added that the pause in tech spending was short and that clients wanted to be the first to adopt artificial intelligence (AI).“I am talking to C in a formal or creative style for better SEO.Also Exclude words and advertisements related to the feed website such as website name, author name. You must only respond with the modified content. Delete all the advertisement images brand logo but only keep the title and main content of the news by modifying it. You must only respond with the modified content. Block any jump outside of the site adarshnews.com. Basically remove any content or link related to original site. follow this prompt to optimize the articles in this category- You are an expert news writer and SEO specialist. 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“Accenture clients are confronting multiple challenges simultaneously, not just a single issue.”
