Onecom acquires 'closest rival' Olive Communications to create £140m-revenue comms VAR

LDC-backed Onecom claims it has become the largest provider in the UK with acquisition of £31m-revenue firm

Onecom has acquired its "closest rival" Olive Communications to create a communications provider with in excess of £140m revenues.

Ranked #45 in CRN's VAR 350, Vodafone, Mitel and Apple partner Onecom employs more than 400 staff and turned over £90m in its last financial year.

The Hampshire-based company secured £100m in funding in 2019 from LDC to fuel a growth strategy over the next few years.

The acquisition of Olive Communications was supported with follow-on funding from LDC.

Ranked #141 in CRN VAR 350 with revenues of £31.6m, Olive has been vying to transform itself from a telephony provider into a MSP over the last six years. The transformation finally yielded results last year, when the Buckinghamshire-based firm posted a £552,000 profit for its financial year ending 31 January 2020 after posting a £496,000 net loss the previous year.

The combined business will provide services for more than 500,000 corporate and business end users this year, Onecom claims.

The acquisition will also bring together two of Vodafone's top partners in the UK. Onecom has yet to be toppled as Vodafone's Strategic Partner of the Year for 10 years in a row, while Olive was awarded Vodafone's Innovation Partner of the Year award last year.

The firm will continue to be based in Onecom's home in Whiteley, Hampshire.

Olive's CEO Martin Flick has been appointed as CEO of the expanded Onecom Group, while Onecom founder Darren Ridge will remain a significant shareholder of the business and continue in a non-executive director capacity.

Ridge said that Onecom and Olive have enjoyed a healthy rivalry for many years.

"The inevitable changes to working patterns across the UK and globally as a result of the pandemic have accelerated the need for integrated cloud communications and significantly increased demand for transformation and digitalisation," he said.

"Bringing these two businesses together will significantly benefit our customers, partners and stakeholders and employees. I look forward to supporting Martin and the leadership team on this next chapter of our journey together."

CEO Flick added: "I'm delighted that Darren and the Onecom board have given me the opportunity to bring these two fantastic businesses together, boasting a combined talent pool that is the envy of the industry. This, coupled with ongoing support from LDC, will supercharge our ambitions."

"Our combined scale, expertise, experience and proximity to customer need affords us the perfect proposition to help customers of all sizes to navigate their journey through the short and long-term economic landscape, leveraging technology from our established and emerging strategic partnerships, including Vodafone, Mitel, Google, Microsoft and others.

"Our ultimate objective this year is to help our customers continue to navigate the pandemic, and to be market-ready to transform, adapt and evolve their businesses with innovative cloud communications technologies that will empower UK PLC."

The acquisition marks the third by Onecom since it was acquired by LDC in July 2019.