Onecom to continue pursuing acquisitions following recent additions

The Vodafone strategic partner has made a number of acquisitions since receiving financial backing from LDC in 2019

Onecom will continue to seek acquisitions following its takeover of fellow Vodafone partner Olive Communications last month.

The move saw Vodafone’s two biggest dealers combine, with the two having a total annual turnover of more than £140 million.

Olive CEO Martin Flick took over as Onecom’s new chief executive, while Onecom founder Darren Ridge moved into a non-executive director role.

It comes after Onecom was backed by private equity firm LDC in 2019 as part of a £100 million investment drive to grow Onecom’s business.

Flick told Mobile News that acquisitions will continue as the market continues to consolidate, with the Vodafone partner now supporting 500,000 corporate and business users.

“We are in a consolidating market, and there’s a lot of people and smaller organisations in particular wondering about their futures, he says.

“The market is consolidating and Onecom, with LDC’s backing, is ideally placed to take advantage of this market consolidation, but at the right pace and the right opportunities; we won’t make acquisitions for the sake of it.”

Greater presence

Since the investment from LDC, Onecom has also acquired Sunderland-based UC specialists Nice Network, Glamorgan Telecom and, early this month, 9 Group.

These acquisitions give Onecom a greater regional presence, says Flick, who adds that Olive will rebrand as Onecom.

“We’ve got good regional reach from a direct perspective, and in our partner channel we’ve got national reach around the whole country as well. We’re very much on the lookout for more partners.

“The plan is to bring the two businesses together. Olive is now part of Onecom and when the time is right, we’ll be rebranding Olive under the Onecom banner. 9 Group will continue to operate as a separate entity under its own brand.”