Babble has renewed its ambition to double gross income for the third consecutive year following its fourth acquisition of 2020.
The cloud communications provider announced the acquisition of Shape Networks earlier this week with Matt Parker, Chief Executive of Babble, confirming that the objective to reach £10 million EBITDA in 2020 has been surpassed.
Speaking to UC Today, Parker said that Babble will be aiming to double its profits before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the third consecutive year with the long term goal of being in a position to become a billion-pound company.
“We set ourselves the objective in 2019 of becoming a £5 million EBITDA business and in 2020 we asked how we get to £10 million,” said Parker
“We’ve got this two-pronged approach to growth, number one focusses on how we drive organic growth in our business and number two then asks how do we acquire businesses that we like and put the sales engine that we have behind those businesses to grow them quicker post-acquisition than pre-acquisition.
“2021 is about doubling the size of the business again. The target I’ve set is, when we go on Christmas break this time next year, I want this business to be twice the size today in revenues and profitability. That will be achieved through multiple acquisitions and driving continued organic growth.
In terms of the long-term objectives for the business, I think there will be a small number of cloud resellers who really make their mark in terms of getting scale. I don’t think anybody’s going to argue that, in this particular industry, consolidation is constant. From my perspective, I think it’s likely that we will see continuous consolidation to the point where there is a billion-pound valued comms reseller in the UK.
I don’t think it’s going to happen next week but I think that somebody who looks a bit like us will end up with that sort of valuation, and I would like to think we are at least as well-positioned as anybody else is to get there in five years.”
The long drive
Parker went on to say that Babble is in advanced stages of two more acquisitions which could be announced this side of Christmas before describing 2020 as a “seminal year” for the comms industry.
“There are two deals that, if all the cards fall the right way up, I would expect to be completed before I go and spend the holidays with my family.
I’m not sure anybody that’s in UC will look back at 2020 as being anything other than a seminal year in the evolution of people in organisations. Organisations can decide they want their staff to use certain technology but the staff are the people who actually adopt it and start to use it as part of their day to day job.”
While COVID has been a terrible thing, through 2020 certain industries are going to see a positive outcome from it. That for me is down to the way that we’ve accelerated the change in behaviour and the use of these sorts of platforms and there’s a lot to be said for being in the right place at the right time. 2020 feels a bit like that for our industry.”
