After a six-year hiatus, Munich-based VAR Cancom has re-entered the United Kingdom by acquiring Ocean Intelligent Communications, a Cisco partner.
The reseller now holds an 82.1 percent stake in the Ocean, which is expected to strengthen Cancom’s position in cloud and managed services. Cancom CEO, Klaus Weinmann, is known for buying companies outright, but Ocean’s founder and several executives will retain a minority stake in the company and remain active in the business.
The last time Cancom operated in the UK was six years ago as an Apple Premium Reseller, but the German VAR sold that business in 2012.
Cancom says the acquisition is a strategic part of its growth plan as it looks into synergies and cross-selling potential within the already existing markets of Cancom and Ocean, as well as expanding into new European regions. The deal increases Cancom’s international presence, offers growth potential in new markets, and contributes to market consolidation, according to the VAR.
"Cancom and Ocean's products and solutions are a perfect match, we will accelerate the cloud and managed services business and build existing customer relationships internationally, and Ocean will benefit from Concom's customer base and leverage our technology and service capabilities Together with Ocean, we will reach the next milestone in the expansion of our business," said Thomas Volk, president and general manager of Cancom, translated from German.
Cancom employes around 2,900 people worldwide and achieves an annual turnover of more than one billion euros per year.
Ocean is a fast-growing cloud and managed services provider within the unified communication and collaboration and network infrastructure space. The company recently earned the Cisco Advanced Collaboration Architecture Specialization.
