European cloud giant swoops for latest deal in expansion drive

Bolton-based communications specialist Telesis has been acquired by cloud telecommunications provider Firstcom Europe for an undisclosed sum.

Telesis says the deal is an exciting opportunity for it to join a pan-European business and provide added benefits and services to their existing UK customer base.

The acquisition sees Telesis director Christian Bleakley remain within the business as the managing director of Firstcom Europe’s UK branches, and increases Firstcom Europe’s annual revenues to more than £30.7m, from £1.5m in 2013.

It will also bring complementary products and management expertise to the Luxembourg-based company.

Telesis has enjoyed significant growth since its establishment in 2009, increasing its turnover to £9m through organic growth and the strategic acquisition of Digital Telecom Airtime last year.

It employs 42 people in the UK who will now form part of Firstcom Europe’s team bringing staff numbers to 200 post-acquisition.

The acquisition of Telesis is the perfect fit for Firstcom Europe, enhancing its services in the UK and contributing to its strategy of accelerated growth across Europe.

Telesis supplies firms across the UK with bespoke communication packages covering all requirements, including phone systems, calls and lines, mobile services, broadband, call recording, CCT, VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), connectivity products, engineering services as well as other add-ons.

Firstcom Europe was established in 2004 and has a clear strategy of integrating business-facing companies throughout Europe with cloud technology.

One significant area of development is that Firstcom Europe has a proprietary platform developed over the past 10 years, by two of its group companies – VOIP.co.uk and Firstcom Denmark, which provide Voice over IP and cloud telephony services which gives the company a distinct competitive edge.

Jean-Pierre Vandromme, Firstcom Europe’s chief executive, said: “Telesis is the eighth acquisition for the Firstcom Europe Group in five years and we expect to close at least one major acquisition and a number of smaller acquisitions in 2019 which will bring our expected annual revenue to over €60 million.

“Our goal is to become the prime pan-European cloud provider with presence across most of Europe with a revenue of over €75 million by 2020.”

He added: “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.”

Christian Bleakley, managing director of Firstcom UK, said “This is a great opportunity for us to build on what we have created so far at Telesis and continue our journey of growth which has seen the business increase its turnover from £5m in 2016 to £9m last year.

“The market is moving more towards subscription-based cloud services, such as hosted PABX and SIP channels and our combined expertise will allow us to expand and enhance the overall service proposition for our customers.

“Firstcom Europe has a superb track record of success and great quality throughout their management team.

“I am very excited to become part of such an ambitious and innovative company that is leading the way in Europe with cloud-based communications.”