Equity Networks has kicked off a buy and build campaign with the acquisition of Cookham Dean-based Centric Systems and its hosted VoIP and connectivity sister company Centricomms for an undisclosed sum. "This is the first of a number of planned acquisitions, all based around a robust recurring revenue model," said Marcos Reid, Director and co-owner, Equity Networks.
"Cloud services are the perfect platform on which to build, and with both comms and IT within the same group the only way is up."
The deal was prompted by a growing number of enquiries from small business customers asking Equity Networks to help them move to the cloud.
"Microsoft Office 365 and cloud storage kept coming up in meetings," explained Reid. "It was clear that clients saw us as an ICT company, not just a comms organisation.
"We were also installing a lot of dedicated fibre Internet connections which was taking us into router and firewall territory, work that we had to sub-contract out.
"We had collaborated with Centric Systems on a couple of projects and were blown away by its technical capabilities.
"Then its owner, Abbos Azad, told us he was looking for an exit. It seemed a perfect fit.
"We are now busy building both companies and cross selling into each other's customer bases and making efficiency savings at the same time."