Onecom continues acquisition drive with takeover of 9 Group
9 Group companies will retain company branding despite the deal
Dealers - Paul Lipscombe
March 4, 2021
It’s the third acquisition Onecom has made since LDC investment arrived in 2019
Onecom has acquired rival Vodafone dealer Olive Communications, with Olive chief executive Martin Flick (pictured) appointed CEO of Onecom Group.
The move will see Onecom and Olive provide services to more 500,000 corporate and business end users this year, with combined annual turnover of more than £140 million.
Onecom founder Darren Ridge will move into a non-executive director role as a result of the acquisition.
The newly-expanded company will continue to be headquartered in Hampshire.
Since founding the business in 2002, Ridge has developed the business to achieve annual revenue of more than £90m.
The acquisition was supported by private equity firm LDC, which invested over £100m in Onecom in July 2019 to drive business growth and is Onecom’s third acquisition since LDC’s investment.
While growth capital investor BGF, which invested £10m into Olive back in 2016 has exited the business as part of this deal.
Olive growth
High-Wycombe-based Olive has grown organically and through acquisitions, with annual revenue growing to £31m.
The dealer has enjoyed more success since developing services beyond mobile, with a strong focus on cloud propositions.
Commenting on the acquisition Ridge said: “We have seen Olive as healthy competitors for years, and their market reputation for delivering cloud services is unrivalled.
“The inevitable changes to working patterns across the UK and globally as a result of the pandemic have accelerated the need for integrated cloud communications and significantly increased demand for transformation and digitalisation. Bringing these two businesses together will significantly benefit our customers, partners and stakeholders and employees.”
Flick added: “Our combined scale, expertise, experience and proximity to customer need affords us the perfect proposition to help customers of all sizes to navigate their journey through the short and long term economic landscape, leveraging technology from our established and emerging strategic partnerships, including Vodafone, Mitel, Google, Microsoft and others.”
Flick adds that the main objective for this year is for Onecom to help its customers to navigate the pandemic and to provide these businesses with innovative cloud solutions.
Onecom was advised by Goodwin Procter LLP, while George Green Solicitors acted for Olive.
