Software distie QBS continues European M&A spree

€30-revenue Compuwave joins QBS

QBS Distribution has continued its M&A drive with the acquisition of German software distie Compuwave.

The firm has offices in Munich and Berlin and turned over €30m in the year ending 31 December 2018.

The acquisition is QBS' third since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March.

QBS boss Dave Stevinson told CRN that his firm is now one of the largest distributors of tier two and three software across the continent.

"Our scale combined with the laser focus on enterprise software allows us to become a compelling part of almost every major reseller's supply chain across Europe," he said.

"Maintaining the current organic growth rate on a much bigger number is particularly exciting for me.

"Having dedicated vendor and partner resource in each significant geography is critical for our key partners and allows us to get a higher win rate on international deals."

QBS announced the acquisition of security VAD AlphaGen in March, and followed that up with the acquisition of the full stake of Zedsphere in April.

It made a string of acquisitions in Europe prior to this.

The Compuwave acquisition brings 35 new employees in QBS, with the distie's leadership team remaining with the business.

Compuwave will continue to act as a standalone business.

Oliver Schnapka, joint CEO at Compuwave said: "We are proud to be joining a firm with the shared vision and history of investing in the future.

"The acquisition confirms our business strategy and enables us to further accelerate our profitable growth both in the DACH region and across Europe."

Stevinson added that the focus will now be on organic growth.

"Growth by acquisition will complement our organic growth, not substitute it," he said.

"Making this volume of deals during COVID-19 was not easy but our team are highly experienced and a lot of planning goes into every deal in advance and as part of the post-acquisition integration phase."