Arrow Business Communications recently made the second purchase in their M&A acquisition spree, buying up London-based company Worksmart Technology. Recently, Arrow secured an M&A budget in 2016, after Growth Capital Partners took a 50% stake in the company. The VAR originally took their first steps into the energy market by purchasing “Pulse Business Energy” in March 2017. Now, it’s followed that purchase up with the takeover of Worksmart, a Mitel partner.
John Harber, the recently appointed managing director for Arrow, said that the acquisition had two key purposes. As well as being a tool for customer relationships and development, Arrow will now have their own hosted Mitel platform in their data centre. Now that Arrow is selling their own hosted telephony to customers, the purchase will give them complete control over their proposition from start to finish. Additionally, the acquisition will give Arrow a London-based office.
What to Expect from Arrow in the Future
Workspace will be joining the Arrow company group with a revenue of about £4.7 million, which adds to the existing £24.6 million filed for 2015. Harber announced that the acquisition strategy for Arrow is nowhere near complete at this stage. Currently, the VAR is still looking for new additions that could complement the firm from both a product and geographical perspective.
Harber only began working at Arrow this month, after he walked away from his role as the UK general manager for Lenovo. At an earlier time in his career, Harber was also a general manager for Sony. Despite his short time with Arrow, Harber’s ties to the VAR go back quite a while, as he invested in the company during two of its funding rounds.
A Rich History with Arrow
Harber’s history with Arrow also goes back to his meeting with CEO Chris Russell when the two of them attended the same business school in 2000. According to Harber, Chris has always been at the centre of the company, and he has been responsible for growing it since the very beginning when there were only four or five people involved.
Harber is enjoying the challenges he’s currently facing as part of Arrow. In an interview about his experience with the company, he noted that most people don’t often get a chance to work for a private equity company, make purchases, and actually build something from scratch.
