Daisy Group has gained another foothold in the enterprise sector with the news today that is has acquired unified comms specialist VAR Damovo UK.
The move will deliver more than 250 organisations to Daisy, including a number of high profile customers in aviation, transportation and government.
It is the group’s first acquisition since its £494m management buyout at the end of 2014.
As a partner of Cisco, Mitel and Microsoft, Damovo’s portfolio includes UC and collaboration, enterprise networks, contact centres, as well as cloud services and global managed services.
With growth in its enterprise base highlighted as a key area of focus, the Daisy leadership team says it is perfectly positioned to develop the Horsham-based operation through its specialist managed services proposition.
“This is the first acquisition we have undertaken since Daisy’s privatisation and enhances our capability in the enterprise space. With strong vendor relationships and an expert team in place, the business is well positioned for growth under our ownership,” says Daisy Group founder, and new executive chairman Matthew Riley in a statement.
“The converging world of traditional telecoms and IT continues to present exciting opportunities and with a rapidly expanding cloud and managed services division the acquisition of this highly scalable UK business is a clear strategic fit for the Group.”
Daisy Group investor Oakley Capital Private Equity has, in a separate deal, acquired Damovo’s operations in Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium and Damovo’s Global Services business, also appointing Riley as execustive chairman.
Damovo Europe employs 271 people across its 14 locations in continental Europe. Says Riley: “The growth opportunity in Unified Communications over the coming three-five years is significant and Damovo Europe is perfectly positioned to materially grow its share of this expanding market. It is an organisation that customers believe delivers high-quality communications solutions to its customers and I am personally very excited about the future for the company.”
The private equity firm has a track record in the telecoms, UCC and adjacent sectors through its investments in Daisy Group, Host Europe Group and intergenia. It acquired the datacentre unit and assets of bankrupt 2e2 in 2013, appointing Daisy Group to manage the business. The firm was founded by Peter Dubens, who is a major shareholder in Daisy.
“Damovo Europe is already very well established in a number of European markets and the fact that the worldwide Unified Communications market is expected to be worth in excess of $75bn by 2020 with significant growth expected to come from within Europe, makes Damovo Europe an obvious choice to add to Oakley’s portfolio,” says Rebecca Gibson, partner of Oakley Capital Private Equity, who adds that she is “particularly pleased that Matt Riley will be investing alongside us and will be executive chairman. He has an exceptional record of valuation creation in the sector.”
The cost of the deal is undisclosed.
Last month Daisy revealed it had recruited Computacenter UK chief Neil Muller to lead its organisation.
