e-know.net acquired by fellow cloud computing business Nasstar in £13m deal

DUDLEY-based web specialist Denara Holdings has been taken over by London rival Nasstar for £13m.

Denara is a holding company for its sole operating subsidiary, e-know.net, a hosted desktop and managed services provider.

Nasstar, which provides hosted desktop cloud computing,suggests the enlarged group will benefit both from the investment it has put into creating its hosted desktop solution and web based administration system and from the sales and marketing strategies e-know.net has developed.

It says this will allow it to provide hosted desktop and managed services to a wider range of business types and sizes whilst benefiting from cost synergies and potential revenue synergies.

Lord Peter Daresbury, chairman of Nasstar, said: “The acquisition of e-know.net is a significant milestone for Nasstar, bringing strong cost, revenue and operational benefits and provides a great platform for us to exploit the rapidly expanding, fragmented hosted desktop market.

“We have been delighted by the positive reaction to acquire this profitable and complementary business and furthermore are pleased to welcome a number of high quality UK institutions to our share register.”
 
David Redwood, chairman of e-know.net, added: “We are delighted to be a part of a combined group that will be able to bring a portfolio of products and services to both its existing and prospective customers, that will truly add value to their management information and IT needs.

“The comprehensive capabilities we bring to the market support our strong growth plans. We look forward to building market share and consequently shareholder value.”
 
Nasstar was founded in 1998 by Charles Black, initially providing website development and hosting services. It launched a hosted email service in 2003 and then in 2004 launched its hosted desktop service and hosted exchange email.

It was admitted to trading on AIM in 2005.