Luxembourg telecommunications provider Firstcom Europe has acquired Bolton, England-based communications specialist Telesis for an undisclosed sum.
The deal will give Telesis access to the broader European market while helping it provide additional benefits and services to its existing UK customers, the company said.
Telesis provides bespoke communication packages including phone systems, calls and lines, mobile services, VOIP, engineering services and other add-ons.
The deal will increase Firstcom’s annual revenues to more than $39.4 million, the company said. Telesis, founded in 2009, has annual turnover of approximately US$10.1 million.
Telesis has 42 employees in the UK, and also boasts M&A experience of its own. Indeed, the company acquired Digital Telecom Airtime last year.
Telesis now joins Firstcom Europe, bringing the total staff to 200. Telesis Director Christian Bleakley will remain with the business as Managing Director of Firstcom Europe’s UK branches.
Firstcom Europe, founded in 2004, has been integrating business-facing companies throughout Europe with cloud technology. This is the company’s eighth acquisition in five years. CEO Jean-Pierre Vandromme says they expect to close at least one other major acquisition and a number of smaller ones by the end of the year. “Our goal is to become the prime pan-European cloud provider with presence across most of Europe with a revenue of over €75 million (US$84.5 million) by 2020,” he said.
“The acquisition of Telesis is a significant milestone in our journey not only because of the revenues and customer base that it brings, but because of its fast growth and expertise in the North of England for delivering telecommunications services with local customer service and product delivery teams. It fits our strategy of converting customers with traditional telecommunication services to new cloud-based products.”
VoIP M&A Movement
VoIP and other communications services have been stirring M&A activity over the past few years. Among the deals we’ve covered:
- June, 2018: SKC Communication Products bought unified communication and collaboration solutions provider GBH Communications.
- March 2018: GTT Communications bought Accelerated Connections, a Canadian managed networking, voice-over-IP (VoIP), and colocation services provider.
- April, 2018: An investment group led by Searchlight Capital Partners paid $2 billion cash for Mitel.
- September 2017: Pacific Office Automation (POA) acquired Trans-West, a Phoenix, Arizona VoIP and data solutions provider.
- September 2017: Ntiva Inc bought full-service telecom provider IN Communications Inc.
- October 2016: BCM One doubled down on its own voice services, buying CloudStrategies Group.
- September 2016: UK-based Solar Communications acquired TWL Voice and Data Limited.
