2017 seems to very much be the year of collaboration and consolidation in the UC industry. Communications and collaboration businesses from around the globe are coming together to combine their value propositions and potentially deliver something new to their target market. We’ve seen this on a gigantic level with the acquisitions happening between Mitel and ShoreTel, as well as Cisco and BroadSoft.
One company that’s embraced this integration age with gusto, is thee Comms VAR Arrow Business Communications. Recently, they announced their third acquisition for the year, as they purchased the Gamma and Avaya partner from Scotland, Siebert Telecom.
The Recent Purchase
According to the latest news, growth capital partners took a 50% stake in Arrow back in 2016, which gave the Comms VAR an M&A war chest they could use for acquisitions throughout this year, both in July and March. To begin with, Arrow purchased Pulse Business Energy, then they followed up that acquisition by buying the Mitel partner, “Workspace”.
Now, Arrow is growing their position as an acquisitive company even further, with the purchase of Siebert telecom, an advanced company in the telephony space. According to the CEO of the business, Chris Russell, the purchase if Siebert represents yet another positive step on Arrow’s roadmap, as they move forward towards becoming a bigger and more competitive telecom entity.
Not only does adding the 16 staff members belonging to Siebert help the Arrow Scotland team to expand their customer support base, but it also helps the brand to continue the focus on their strategy to buy, build, and remain local.
A Bullseye Growth Strategy for Arrow
Arrow has been focusing on expanding their business ever since they received the capital to start making strategic investments in 2016. According to the experts behind the brand, such as Chris Russell, this third acquisition in 2017 will help to further develop the brand by delivering a stronger geographic portfolio.
At the same time, the purchase will mean that Arrow can continue to experiment with their product strategy and deliver more diversity to their roadmap. The third acquisition will be the last one to happen in 2017 according to the company, as it completes the key objectives that the brand had laid out for themselves at the beginning of the year. They believe that Arrow in Scotland will now have the power it needs to benefit from increased growth and reach in the years to come.
The decision to purchase Siebert and fuse the company with the Scottish side of Arrow’s business will mean that the combined business now has 850 customers, and a little more than 20 staff. According to the recent filings on the company’s financial performance, Arrow has achieved a revenue of around £21.6 million in the 12 months that ended in December 2016.
