Stevinson braves teargas attack to seal deal in Istanbul
The CEO of Cheshire-based tech business QBS Dave Stevinson has been in Istanbul sealing a deal to acquire enterprise software distributor Elmer, braving teargas attacks by police on protestors outraged at the arrest of an opponent of President Erdogan, jailed Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu ahead of national elections.
Stevinson inked the deal in a lawyer’s offices on the main square where he said it was “getting lively.”
He told TheBusinessDesk.com: “Yet – There is nothing like the smell of chlorobenzilidene malonitrile in one’s nostrils to harden the resonance to complete the deal on time and get safely out of Istanbul and back to Alderley Edge!”
There have been nightly rallies outside Istanbul city hall, where hundreds of thousands attended while small groups of demonstrators frequently clashed with police. Security forces have used teargas, water cannons and pepper spray on demonstrators, which Human Rights Watch described as an “unwarranted and unlawful use of police force”.
The acquisition continues QBS’ journey to bolster its presence in the META (Middle East, Turkey and Africa) region and continues its journey to become a $1bn global business by 2030. This move aligns QBS goal to significantly expanding their global presence whilst tapping into fast growing emerging markets with promising potential.
Stevinson, who was crowned CEO of the Year at the Business of the Year Awards last year said: “The acquisition of Elmer is a natural next step in our expansion strategy as we integrate our tooling to roll out the QBS platform across the region.”
He added: “There are a number of synergies that we expect to benefit from, and are excited with the team that joins QBS and look forward to their input in shaping our Turkiye business.”
This is the third deal for QBS having purchased InfoNet Bilgi Teknolojileri in May 2023 and then Prianto Turkey Yazilim Dağıtım in February 2025. The acquisition complements the previous deals to build out a significant and important Turkish software delivery platform with almost 1000 resellers across the region. Key vendors represented include Checkpoint, OpenText, Trend Micro, Quest, Suse, JetBrains, Teamviewer and Dev Express.
Elmer, headquartered in Istanbul, Turkiye, has been a prominent value-added distributor for over 27 years, boasting over 1500 vendors on their platform. Its reach extends across Turkiye, Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia. Elmer was established in 1998 by Oguz Ulker and three classmates from the electrical engineering department of ODTU, Middle East Technical University. They were writing and selling software in a country before the hardware infrastructure was fully established. The company has shown consistent growth and has
over 100 loyal reselling partners.
Elmer will work closely with the QBS Software UK entity and an integration team will synchronise the platforms in order to offer the client base of Elmer the entire 12000 publishers available in the QBS library within 90 days. The team will grow headcount with new roles in channel management, software testing and
partner success.
Oguz Ulker, Founder and CEO, Elmer said he has “spent my lifetime building Elmer into the largest dedicated enterprise software distributor in Turkiye,” adding that he has helped deliver software from hundreds of publishers. “It is so pleasing to join forces with Dave and his team at QBS who do exactly the same as we do but on a much larger scale. I look forward to helping him take it to the billion dollars and beyond,” he said.
