£38m-revenue comms provider FourNet has been acquired by Palatine Private Equity.
FourNet specialises in unified communications, collaboration and contact centre technology, and counts a number of government institutions – including 10 Downing Street – among its customers.
FourNet CEO, Richard Pennington, said: “Our new partnership with Palatine further positions us as a prime player in the technology sector and we are delighted to be working with their team.
“Palatine’s investment will keep FourNet at the forefront of the industry and will also provide the fuel for us to lead further change across the sector while allowing us to capitalise on the rapid growth in demand for cloud, collaboration and managed service solutions”
“The pandemic has been a catalyst for significant change in working practices and our industry over the past 12 months and fresh investment will enable FourNet to rapidly meet the changing needs of our customers, many of whom are critical to the UK’s success following the pandemic, and to build and acquire the additional capabilities that our customers require.
FourNet is headquartered in Manchester and has more than 100 employees, across offices in London and Burton-on-Trent.
It counts Avaya, Microsoft and Gamma among its key vendor partners.
The acquisition sees minority investor YFM Equity Partners and two founding shareholders depart the business.
Andy Strickland, Senior Investment Director at Palatine, said that that cash injection will be used in part to kick start a buy and build strategy.
He said: “FourNet is a highly respected, well-managed business with a loyal customer base and we look forward to working with Richard and the leadership team to add further value and power to its continued growth at a time of significant public sector investment in Cloud and IT infrastructure.
“We see significant opportunity for FourNet to strengthen its position in the marketplace as the go-to cloud services supplier to the public sector.
“Given our strong track record in the TMT sector and in IT, cloud and managed services in particular we believe we will be able to assist management in capitalising on the market opportunity.”
