Comms company dials up third acquisition in nine months
4Com, the Bournemouth-based provider of business telephone systems to UK SMEs, has acquired the business telecoms customers from Bluebell Cloud Solutions.
The acquisition is 4Com’s third in the past nine months.
Last year saw the acquisition of both Midlands-based Midshire Business Systems (Communications), commonly known as Midshire Telecom and Norwich-based Eastern Telephones, known as Eastern Voice and Data.
However, unlike the previous acquisitions which saw 4Com purchase entire companies, the Bluebell Cloud Solutions deal is acquiring the business telecoms customer base only, with the company itself continuing to trade.
Gary Scutt, 4Com’s chief executive, said: “When Bluebell Cloud Solutions reached out to us, we were naturally keen to explore their proposal of acquiring their business telecoms customers to support our ongoing growth strategy. As this was our first acquisition where we’ve bought a customer base rather than an entire company it was a new experience for us, and one which we’ve once again learned a lot from. We’re delighted to complete the deal with Bluebell and we look forward to building a strong relationship with our new customers.”
Ben Newbury, director at Bluebell, said: “4Com were very clear from the outset how the process worked, were honest in their approach and pulled no last-minute tricks on price, as so commonly seen in the industry. At Bluebell we wanted funding to expand the business further, so we needed an injection of capital, that’s where 4Com came in and purchased a large part of our customer base. The process was finished within six weeks of our initial contact.”
Dean Cartledge, 4Com’s COO, said: “We are very pleased with how smoothly the acquisition process has gone. I would like to thank the whole team at Bluebell for their help in making it possible to complete this deal. Acquisitions always require a lot of hard work and patience and Bluebell, along with our superb 4Com team, have worked tirelessly to create a smooth transfer of customers.”
