Hungry Six Degrees hits £50m after gobbling up CCC

Buy-and-builder reaches into pocket for the ninth time with acquisition of hosting outfit

After securing another £8m in funding from its venture capital backers, buy-and-build comms player Six Degrees Group (6DG) has snapped up cloud hosting player Cloud Computing Centre (CCC).

The Leatherhead-based company is 6DG's ninth acquisition since it was founded less than a year ago. The deal takes the City-headquartered firm to a revenue run-rate of about £50m, with EBITDA of £12m.

CCC reportedly serves more than 100 mid-market customers, with the average client spend about £36,000 per annum. The firm partners with vendors including Microsoft, Dell, VMware, Cisco and Juniper.

Keith Bates, chief executive of CCC, said: "We felt that the time was right to join forces with one of the fastest-growing managed data service providers in the sector, especially when we have so much in common. Joining Six Degrees Group will significantly strengthen our ability to win mid-market and corporate cloud hosting contracts and to deliver new services to our existing clients."

Former Spiritel chief Alastair Mills founded Six Degrees last autumn, backed by a £60m investment from Penta Capital. The company was formed from a trio of acquisitions – UKSolutions, NetworkFlow and Protel – and a further five deals have been closed prior to today's announcement. The CCC buyout comes as Penta has committed another £8m to the business.

Mills said: "I am delighted to welcome Cloud Computing Centre to Six Degrees Group. This is a significant acquisition for us as it reinforces our mid-market focus, strengthens our managed cloud hosting team and brings outstanding technical capabilities to the group."