Daisy Group has added over 100,000 small businesses to its base following a deal to acquire XLN, which provides business broadband, phones and card payments. The transaction brings a significant IP upgrade opportunity to Daisy ahead of the PSTN shut down.
This division of Daisy now boasts in excess of 200,000 customers with combined revenues of over £200m.
Daisy Chairman Matthew Riley (pictured) stated: “With so much investment across the UK to improve the fibre infrastructure, Daisy is now well positioned to help unlock the enhanced speed, reliability and security that customers want in their offices and shops up and down the country.
"There is also a vast opportunity in the creation of jobs as we need more staff to help deliver that service.”
The acquisition comes at time when UK businesses need to prepare for the analogue switch off in 2025, meaning that Daisy has bolted on a significant opportunity to capitalise on the high volume small business market in need of an all IP upgrade.
Cracking this segment comes down to an education piece and Daisy says it is primed to help businesses understand the benefits of IP comms and make the transition, and will be employing more sales and service teams to add support.
Daisy Communications CEO Dave McGinn said: “I’ve always admired XLN's championing of small businesses. We will work closely with the XLN team to capitalise on our shared portfolio.”
Christian Nellemann, founder and Executive Chairman of XLN, stated: “We have been successful in our support of small businesses since our launch in 2002. Therefore, we felt the time was right to hand the reins over to Daisy which has a track record of investing and enhancing the businesses they acquire.”
The deal sees Nellemann and XLN CEO Neil Conaghan leave the business.