Brexit's Impact on Global Tech - Thematic Research

Brexit’s Impact on Global Tech - Thematic Research

Summary

The risks to the UK tech sector from a disorderly ‘No Deal’ Brexit include a hit on funding for innovative start-ups and an inability to service IT contracts and build viable future ones. Technology companies worldwide need to reformulate their strategies and progress action plans in preparation for Brexit. The rejection by Members of Parliament (MPs) of British prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal has left the technology industry staring at a ‘No Deal’ scenario, with potentially severe impacts on the ability of tech companies to service contracts with customers and worries over falling investment and failing competitiveness because of the ongoing political and economic uncertainty.

Five key areas where challenges must be overcome to mitigate the impact of Brexit on the tech sector are: securing the continued free flow of data; ensuring continued access to talent; enabling the frictionless movement of tech products and services across borders; providing alignment on rules covering digital services to avoid barriers to market access, and retaining access to EU funding streams such as Horizon 2020 and the European Investment Fund.

With no clear picture yet emerging as to what Brexit will ultimately look like, tech executives could be forgiven for adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach before deciding what to do. The big global tech players have the footprint to weather the Brexit storm because they have a big enough boat to ride the waves and a European harbor to sail for. Smaller players facing a skills shortage are more likely to be losers, as will telecom operators, which need skills to tackle full-fiber rollout.

The biggest loser from a ‘No Deal’ Brexit will be UK Plc, including tech start-ups and scale-ups in search of funding. The UK has typically been the default stop for US tech investment, but any Silicon Valley CEO looking at the UK’s likely post-Brexit hangover (and current political turmoil) will either put off a decision indefinitely or opt for an alternative base that is both tech-friendly and offers strong English-language skills.

For example, Ireland saw over 55 Brexit-related investments in 2018 with over 4,500 associated jobs. In Germany, foreign direct investment figures for 2017 from the country’s economic development agency Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) showed the number of UK investment projects jumping by 21%, with the UK being the largest source of merger, acquisition and shareholding investment. The volume of enquiries to the GTAI from the UK also rose sharply.

The government always talks a good game about winning the global race, in areas like AI, but the UK seems to be setting out to try and win the race with its legs tied together. Even Mo Farah would struggle with that. If the government expects the UK’s tech sector to continue to thrive, it has to create the conditions for it to do so, not destroy them.

The latest report "Brexit’s Impact on Global Tech - Thematic Research", states that global tech titans with a European base should survive the Brexit turmoil, but smaller companies lack the resources and bandwidth to cope with the expected fallout from ‘No Deal’, including diverging regulations, more red tape and talent acquisition challenges.

The report list’s out the major milestones in the journey towards Brexit, and provides an easy-to-follow parliamentary roadmap showing how the Brexit issue is likely to develop over the coming months.

Scope

• This report summarizes five Brexit scenarios and the corresponding outlook for six tech sectors: hardware, software, internet, TV, telecoms operators and space.


• It is based on interviews with specialists on key issues in each sector.

Reasons to buy

• This report evaluates a range of possible outcomes to Brexit, all of them largely dependent on political twists and turns.


• It identifies the winners and losers from Brexit from across the global tech sector.


• It includes analysis of how Brexit will impact six tech sectors (hardware, software and services, internet, TV broadcasters, telecoms operators and space companies) and assess the impact on people, politics, economics and business of likely Brexit scenarios.