{"id":2137331,"date":"2025-04-07T09:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T08:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/?p=2137331"},"modified":"2025-04-08T08:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T07:27:21","slug":"leeds-ai-consultancy-bought-in-8m-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/yorkshire\/news\/2137331-leeds-ai-consultancy-bought-in-8m-deal","title":{"rendered":"Leeds AI consultancy bought in \u00a38m deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Leeds-based data and AI consultancy, Oakland Group Services, has been bought by a listed IT infrastructure company in an \u00a38m deal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oakland has been acquired by Softcat in a move to broaden its portfolio and support customers in all areas of their evolving technology infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oakland\u2019s specialist consultancy services range from data strategy and governance, through to architecture and engineering, analytics and AI. The company employs 70 people, and in the twelve months to 31 December 2024 generated revenue of around \u00a310m. Oakland is an existing partner to Softcat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">A payment of \u00a38m has been funded by Softcat\u2019s existing cash, with further contingent payments over the next 3 years depending on performance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">As part of the transaction, Oakland\u2019s leadership team will join Softcat to run the business initially as a standalone operating unit, aligning with Softcat\u2019s sales team to maximise the shared growth opportunity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Richard Corderoy, Oakland CEO, said: \u201cWe are excited to join forces with Softcat. By combining our deep expertise in data and AI consulting with Softcat&#8217;s extensive portfolio and market presence, we can deliver unparalleled value and innovation to our clients. This partnership marks a significant milestone in our journey, and we\u2019re looking forward to achieving great things together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Graham Charlton, Softcat CEO, added: \u201cData is one of the biggest opportunities ahead of us as innovation in technology continues to shift rapidly towards a more automated and AI-driven world.\u00a0Our customers need expert support to navigate this transition,\u00a0so by combining Softcat\u2019s market presence and broad portfolio with Oakland\u2019s specialist capabilities, we can guide customers through every stage of this journey.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;The acquisition of Oakland delivers an immediate, strategically important addition to our portfolio of services, and most importantly brings into the Softcat family a fantastic group of people who we know well and who align closely to our culture and values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Law firm Addleshaw Goddard advised Oakland on the deal, with a team including Richard Hunt, Tom Hopwood, Cameron Allwood and Ben Atkinson.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clearwater also advised and their team was Richard Goldsack, James Croxen and Tom Kaye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acquisition of Oakland Services Group will boost Softcat&#8217;s portfolio<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271992,"featured_media":2096954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57362,2],"coauthors":[137100],"class_list":["post-2137331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acquisitions","category-deals","tag-top-story","tag-yorkshire"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Leeds AI consultancy bought in \u00a38m deal | TheBusinessDesk.com<\/title>\n<meta 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