Nuvias acquires Cloud Distribution as it expands emerging technologies business

CEO Simon England hints more M&A is to come from Nuvias as it looks to invest in post-pandemic opportunities

Nuvias has acquired Cloud Distribution in a move to expand its emerging technologies business in the UK.

The distributor will acquire all shares in Newbury-based Cloud Distribution as part of the transaction. Members of Nuvias' executive team will join Cloud Distribution's board, but the distributor will continue to be run and managed by its existing management team.

Cloud Distribution will continue as a standalone business following the acquisition, with its branding changing slightly to "Cloud Distribution, a Nuvias company".

The value-added distributor, which counts Vectra, Pulse Secure, Extreme Networks and Arista among its vendor partners, turned over £25m in its fiscal 2019 and employs 22 staff according to Companies House.

Speaking to CRN, Nuvias CEO Simon England said the acquisition will help Nuvias to take advantage of emerging technologies in the cybersecurity and networking spaces.

The deal will also bolster Nuvias' business with established vendors including Juniper Networks, Fortinet and Watchguard which have been making their own acquisitions and buying up emerging vendors, England added.

"We believe there's an environment where new technology is coming into the market. And we can be, as a group, a better partner if we can also be a trusted advisor for these technologies," he said.

"For an emerging vendor to move from almost nothing to its first £1m actually requires a lot more hand holding than most larger distribution organisations can do. We have been doing some of this within Nuvias; it's not foreign to us, but we believe we can step up our investment to really be able to engage in those emerging technologies."

Meanwhile, being part of the Nuvias group will enable Cloud Distribution to start new conversations with its vendors about expanding their business across Nuvias' larger European footprint.

"We're just going to continue doing what we've always done, but just do more of it," added Greg Harris, CEO of Cloud Distribution.

"That makes our mission and our forward thinking very, very simple. Essentially, the mission stays exactly the same; we just added another rocket onto the ship we were already on and that makes life very, very simple for vendors the reseller and more importantly for our staff."

England stressed that Cloud Distribution will operate as a separate business at least for the next few years, but added that Nuvias could help the business to grow further through using its own services and support functionality across the Nuvias group.

"We will be looking for obviously where we can benefit from each other. We want Cloud Distribution to keep on doing what they were doing, but also see how we could fuel the business further and add to Cloud Distribution's remit."

"Do you gain a benefit from integrating or do you run the risk of being distracted? As long as we can put the appropriate financial governance and legal governance in place, we don't have to force change on the integration side."

The Cloud Distribution acquisition is Nuvias' first in the UK since it acquired unified communication player Siphon in 2016.

The distributor "kept the power dry" amid the pandemic last year, but England hinted that more M&A is slated for the future as it looks to capture new opportunities post-pandemic.

"That's to be expected. We really believe that we have a platform within Nuvias that we can utilise. In 2020, we did want to keep the powder dry because we were optimistic but we were also cautious and we were not quite sure where the pandemic would take us.

"Where we stand right now with the perspective of the opening up of the economies and being able to get back into offices, we do believe now is the time to move. That's the same ambition that's shown itself in this acquisition of Cloud Distribution which will also lead to other steps," England said.

"We think this is a perfect time from all sides to make a move. We think that there's significant opportunity out there and I think most of our industry got through the 2020 pandemic year quite well."

"It's the clarity of the strategy which makes M&A a lot easier, more selective, and means a much more higher likelihood of success which I think is key in what we do," he added.