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Dealers
January 5, 2017
It is the company’s fifth acquisition in 12 months following its purchase of Outsourcery in June last year
UC giant GCI has boosted its annual revenues to £75 million following its acquisition of Freedom Communications for an undisclosed sum.
The deal between GCI and Hertfordshire-based cloud and data network specialist Freedom was announced today (January 4). It is the fifth acquisition in a year follow the notable purchase of Manchester-based IT provider Outsourcery in June last year for an undisclosed figure. The company also owns London-based Vodafone dealer CommsXchange.
This latest deal boosts GCI’s annual revenues by more than £18 million. Its total customer base will also be increased by 800 to 3,500, adding names such as Ealing Council and London University, alongside Argos and Habitat parent Home Retail Group. Total staff numbers have also increased by 100 to 300 overall, with no immediate changes to Freedom employee numbers or branding.
GCI also claims the new acquisition makes it one of the top three UK providers for Microsoft Skype services. It will add more than 40,000 Skype for Business accounts, taking GCI’s total number to over 180,000.
GCI CEO Adrian Thirkill (pictured) said: “2016 was a busy and productive year at GCI. Our acquisition of Freedom is another steady step in our journey to deliver progressive and cost efficient managed services to all our customers.
“Freedom’s heritage and skills as a Unified Communications Systems Integrator, and its focus on transitioning customers from old world to new, is perfectly aligned with our own growth strategy and is a great fit for us.”
Freedom Communications MD Pat Botting added: “We are absolutely delighted to share this announcement. Not only is this great news for our people, but it is also great news for all our customers now gearing to full UC adoption.”