Just weeks after acquiring Olive Communications, Onecom has today (March 4) announced the acquisition of 9 Group.
Onecom’s takeover of 9 Group will add thousands of fixed line and cloud customers, plus hundreds of channel partners.
The acquisition incorporates 9 Retail, which will add an additional 5,000 telephony, hosted voice and on-premises customers.
This deal also adds 450 indirect channel partners from 9 Partners, that provide a suite of integrated connectivity solutions, localised customer service, plus billing and analytics.
It is the fourth acquisition that Onecom has made with the backing of private equity firm LDC, since the firm backed the business in July 2019.
This takeover also ensures Onecom’s product mix of mobile and non-mobile communications solutions is a 50-50 split.
Despite the acquisition, 9 Group’s companies will retain their branding and continue to trade separately, but can now also benefit from Onecom’s resources and investment.
9 Group founder and CEO James Palmer will remain actively involved with the business, along with the current management team.
Commenting on the acquisition, Onecom CEO Martin Flick said: “This is a highly significant strategic acquisition for Onecom Group, strengthening our portfolio and further diversifying our revenue streams by adding a large non-mobile telephony provider and a fantastic channel partner community as a new route to market in one move.”
Flick adds that Onecom will continue to support and invest in channel partners in the future.
“We have a well-established footprint in enterprise and the mid-market and the acquisition will help us, through valued partners, drive sales of our exceptional products and services to businesses of all sizes, with a high degree of proximity to customer need that only a channel can deliver to SMBs at this scale.”
Palmer adds: “I am excited about bringing our two businesses together and working with the Onecom team so that customers and partners across the board benefit from new opportunities of scale and increased capability.”
After this acquisition Onecom has become the owner of the 9 Group brand.
However former 9 Group company eve Networks and the group’s separate IT business are not part of the deal, and will remain under their existing ownership.