Comms Dealer

US-based Arrow is to buy Computerlinks from Equistone plus other shareholders of the Computerlinks Group in a in 230m euro deal.

"This acquisition supports our strategy to serve the data centre of the future and strengthens our position in this rapidly growing segment. We are excited to welcome the Computerlinks team to Arrow," said Michael J. Long, chairman, president and CEO of Arrow.

Headquartered in Munich, Germany, Computerlinks has operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. Sales in 2013 are estimated to total approximately €700m and this acquisition is expected to be $.20 to $.24 accretive to earnings per share, excluding the impact of the amortization of related intangible assets, in the first year post closing, Arrow says. The purchase price is approximately €230m.

Computerlinks has a presence in 22 countries and has increased its number of employees from 566 in 2008 to approximately 720 worldwide.

Stephan Link, CEO of Computerlinks, said: "We are grateful for Equistone ?s support in the growth of our business into new services and geographies. I believe that there are significant opportunities ahead in the IT areas of security, networking, storage and virtualisation, and we look forward to working with Arrow to explore these."

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Vodafone and O2 have announced the roll out of 4G data services in three UK cities. Initially Vodafone's 4G will be limited to certain areas of London while O2 launches in London, Leeds and Bradford. Until today EE has been the only company to offer superfast mobile data in the UK since October 2012.

4G networks can provide data to smartphone users up to 10 times faster than 3G services.

Scott Hooton, Chief Commercial Officer, Phones 4u commented: "Today's another landmark day for 4G. While it's great to see more choice in the market, consumers still don't understand the benefits of 4G. Our own research found that while 90% of people are aware of 4G, only 39% are confident that they fully understand the benefits.

"Each available proposition is really strong, so our focus will be fully demonstrating the capabilities to customers in dedicated experience zones to really bring the 4G experience to life and better inform their purchase decisions."

Cloud and colocation firm UKFast has surpassed all sales targets for 2013 thanks to its newly-launched cloud range, eCloud, which has generated more than £1m of contracted revenue in two months.

The Manchester firm launched eCloud in June to provide the home-grown service and genuine elasticity demanded by UK businesses for years. Offering petabytes of high-quality storage, best-of-breed technology from 3Par, Cisco and SGI, and UK-based 24/7 award-winning support, it is the first cloud range of its type to hit the UK shores and has proved popular with UK firms who want to buy British.

Lawrence Jones, UKFast CEO said: "eCloud is attracting huge number of new clients to UKFast and has been incredibly well received. Its US counterparts run their clouds using free software and don't specify hardware. It's difficult to understand where your data lives too as there are no clear boundaries where the US cloud lies.

"Businesses need transparency. They deserve to know where their data is and what technology it's hosted on and that no one, not even the US government can access it. They deserve trusted, enterprise-level infrastructure. eCloud embraces the best of breed vendors, VMware, UCS and 3Par and it's a massive investment but it's paying off."

Jones added that eCloud's success illustrates the industry demand for a top-class, enterprise-level cloud on home shores.

He said: "While we have seen an exceptional growth in cloud sales, Amazon has recently introduced a 50% reduction in prices. You have to ask if this is a knee-jerk reaction linked to the number of clients they are failing to keep but also to the growth of British providers, like UKFast.

"UK customers are getting tired of being kept in the dark and false promises about the whereabouts and guaranteed safe-keeping of their data.

"We didn't want to create a run-of-the-mill, self-serve cloud product. We wanted to combine great technology with the very best in British service. We wanted to bring something to Britain that businesses have been asking for for a long time.

"It demanded significant investment and months of research and development to create something that has never been seen before. It was worth it. We got it right, filling a gap in the cloud market for serious businesses that need top-spec technology and high levels of service, not just pay-as-you-go resources."

Last year UKFast saw turnover increase by 25% to £20m. The latest figures driven by eCloud put the firm well on the way to hitting its projected 2013 target of more than £25m.

Three charities are set to benefit when a team from Bury-based Pennine Telecom take part in a Top Gear style Bangers and Cash car challenge.

Led by sales director Geoff King the four strong team is set to journey across Europe in a 12- year-old BMW bought for just £395 to compete in the Gamma Ball Rally II.

The event will see them travelling over 1,000 miles in the Y-registration estate car on a journey that will take them from Newbury to Budapest via Brands Hatch, Bruges, Warburg and Vienna. Along the way they will also complete four laps of the infamous Nurburgring, a private motorsports track that includes a GP circuit.

Despite visiting both UK and German tracks the rally is not a race. Instead competitors will earn points by completing tasks set along the way. They must tackle the journey in a car which they have bought for less than £500 and, if it breaks down, face the embarrassment of completing the trip in the official back up vehicle - a pink Ford Ka!

The Pennine team's participation has already ensured that two charities are £500 better off. The rally's organiser - business communications and software services company Gamma - has arranged for all entry fees to directly benefit Action Through Enterprise, which aids starving Ghanaian children, and East Cheshire Hospice.

In addition Pennine are seeking to raise further funds for Bury Hospice which it already sponsors.

"It looks like a great challenge, one that promises a lot of fun, some potentially embarrassing moments and, whatever happens, will raise a good deal of money for some excellent charities," commented King. "We already support Bury Hospice and know the absolutely fantastic work it does so this is the perfect opportunity for us to raise funds for them. We encourage our customers and suppliers to donate via our JustGiving page."

The team will compete as "4 Mancs in a Car" with Geoff joined on the four day challenge by operations manager, Xavier Senelle, mobile business manager, Steve Tipper, and Adam Brierley, a Manchester-based account manager for Gamma.

The team will depart from Newbury on Wednesday 11th September and, if all goes well, are due to arrive in Budapest on Saturday 14th September. If and when they make it to the Hungarian capital they'll then attend a gala prize-giving dinner and a "money can't buy" charity auction. They can then choose whether to tackle the return journey in their jalopy or have it recycled and instead fly back. "I think we'll play that one by ear" says Geoff tentatively!

To sponsor 4 Mancs in a Car and support Bury Hospice visit www.justgiving.com/Pennine-Telecom.

Pragma has become Ericsson-LG's sole UK distributor following a period of growth in which Pragma, founded in 2012 by David George, Tim Brooks and Will Morey, demonstrated a high degree of competence and capability in the distribution and support of Ericsson-LG's end-to-end solutions from voice products to data and applications.

Ahed Alkhatib, Head of Enterprise Solutions international sales division of Ericsson-LG, said: "Ericsson-LG has decided to build on the early success and momentum by forging a closer relationship with Pragma. We will continue to invest in expanding our market share in the UK market with Pragma as our sole distributor."

Tim Brooks, Managing Director, Pragma commented: "With Ericsson-LG's product portfolio, its focus on support for the UK market, we are excited to be working together to grow our UK market share."

An upsurge in demand from the energy sector at home and overseas has spurred Xtreme Business Solutions to expand its workforce with eight new recruits.

The Westhill-based company's headcount now stands at 48 after winning a clutch of new contracts for clients including Transocean, Genesis and Technip.

Further major projects with a combined value of £1.2m have been secured for 2013, including rig fleet refurbishment work on behalf of Diamond Drilling and Transocean.

Over the past two years Xtreme has invested in specialist equipment and offshore survival training for its team of fibre and data engineers.

This investment has allowed the company to offer its clients in the energy sector a range of onshore and offshore communications solutions.

"It is encouraging that oil and gas companies are making use of our capabilities to tackle rig cabling, maintenance and refurbishment projects and overseas," said Graeme Duncan, MD.

"Over the past few months we have tackled a diverse range of jobs from the installation of complete network infrastructures in new office buildings to fibre work for CCTV systems on offshore rigs."

Communicate Better has snapped up Salford-based ConvergeOne for an undisclosed sum, its third acquisition this year. According to Wayne Cartwright, CEO of Communicate Better, the move enables the business to hit its target of doubling turnover for the third year running.

The acquisition will help us achieve a turnover of around £8m this financial year and improve our cloud offering," he said.

ConvergeOne, an IT and cloud solutions specialist, will enable Communicate Better to enhance its cloud services provision and offer new product offerings to the existing customer base.

ConvergeOne will become part of the Communicate Better group but continues to operate under the ConvergeOne name.

Existing staff are being retained, bringing additional technical expertise to the company and taking Communicate Better's employee numbers to over 60.

The acquisition includes a number of key contracts and a wide range of customers within the legal and associated sectors.

Cartwright added: "The acquisition has accelerated our development by around two years and also offers a significant opportunity for cross sales.

"We have no plans for further acquisitions in the remainder of the year and shall spend our time consolidating the business and ensuring continued customer service for all of our customers.

"However, needless to say, we are now looking for larger premises within the region to accommodate our growing team."

The acquisition comes after Communicate Better acquired SCT Systems and TTS Communications earlier this year.

Jabra has signed a new European contract with distribution partner Ingram Micro, building on their previous agreement in key regions and expanding the offer of Ingram Micro Advanced Solutions, the value-add division that provides resellers with the opportunity to grow their UC category.

The agreement also allows for the launch of SMB channel programmes and the Channel Transformation Alliance (CTA) education module, which will supply resellers with additional ways to maximise sales and services opportunities.

Christophe Mory, Senior Manager UC EMEA at Ingram Micro, said: "In the UK and in Germany our partnership with Jabra has been a great success and we're excited about the prospect of expanding our relationship into all of Europe."

Andrew Doyle, Senior Director, Jabra Channel Sales EMEA, commented: "This European agreement will allow Jabra to work with Ingram Micro to educate resellers on the importance of audio devices within UC deployments and enable them to offer optimised solutions that will increase their revenue and grow their headset category."

Senior Labour MP Andy Burnham officially opened the offices of managed services and cloud computing firm Intrinsic Technology.

Burnham, who is also shadow health secretary, cut the ribbon outside Intrinsic's new building at The Parks, Haydock, following a tour of the premises.

The office move caps off years of consistent growth for Intrinsic, with the business set to continue its impressive growth in the coming years.

The company also works in the healthcare sector, carrying out numerous ICT projects to help improve efficiency of hospitals and NHS trusts across the country.

Adam Jarvis, CEO at Intrinsic Technology said: "It was an honour to have Andy with us to officially open our new offices. Our move here was an important step, and we're in the perfect position now to really push on and expand further."

Burnham said: "It's always satisfying to see businesses in the North West enjoy such success on a national scale, and I take great pride in opening Intrinsic's new offices as it looks to build on its recent growth.

"I congratulate Adam and the team for the great work they continue to do, particularly in improving ICT in the healthcare sector, and wish them the very best for the future."

An epidemic of Nomophobia, the fear of being without a phone, has spread across the UK according to new research.

First identified in 2008, Nomophobia is still a problem for the majority of the population with over 54% suffering from the condition. Women suffer most and are 17% more likely to be afflicted by men, finds the survey.

The study among 1,000 people in employment, commissioned by AppRiver, found that people are now so obsessed with the need to be connected to their phones that even when they are away on their annual holiday, 42% will take their devices down to the beach with them.

The survey discovered that 28% of people will also look at their work emails while on away from home, with men slightly more eager to catch their emails than their female counterparts.

And it seems the bedroom, rather than a haven of relaxation, is instead another favourite place to work as 17% of people checking their emails in bed. Many risk indigestion as 25% feed their email addiction or text during a dinner date, with women once again 10% more likely to do so than men.

With phones now holding so much valuable information, it is worrying to note that just 50% of people bother to secure them with a password or any other form of security and 70% have no way to remotely wipe the device were their phone to be lost or stolen.

Fred Touchette, senior security analyst at AppRiver said: "It's clear that we're a society totally reliant on our phones not only for personal use but business use too. Even when we're away on holiday, lying in bed or on a dinner date many of us just can't help looking at our emails, no matter what time of day or the situation.

"What worries me is that, with so much information stored on them - from confidential office documents, contact details, emails, photos, bank log-ins, etc, when these devices get lost or stolen and end up in the wrong hands the information is so easily exploited as little to any security precautions are taken.

"Our advice is always to protect your phone with security - at the very least with a password, and if you're using it for work get your IT department to secure them with encryption or even better the ability to wipe them remotely."