FluidOne acquires networking specialist SAS Global Communications
Acquisition creates £60m revenue business and adds skills in SD-WAN hybrid networks
Cloud aggregator FluidOne has acquired networking specialist SAS Global Communications in a move which will create a £60m-revenue business and add new skills in SD-WAN hybrid networks.
Founded in 1989 and based in Horsham, BT Wholesale, TalkTalk Business and Colt partner SAS Global Communications offers managed networking services and bills itself as a SD-WAN specialist for mid-market and enterprise customers.
The business focuses on customers with more than 1,000 staff and currently serves around 150 clients with sites in 65 countries.
London-based FluidOne, which used to be part of SCC parent Rigby Group until 2019, claims that the acquisition will bring its revenues to £60m and its headcount to 240 staff serving 1,300 customers and resellers.
Now backed by private equity firm Livingbridge, FluidOne has been on the M&A trail over the last few years. It snapped up £6m-revenue MSP PSU Business Technology in November 2020 before acquiring Cyber Security Associates at the start of 2021.
CEO Russell Horton told CRN last year that acquisitions will remain a key part of its growth strategy moving forwards, claiming that he wants to expand the London business into the north of the UK through M&A.
"I have known Colin Mattey, the chairman of SAS, for a number of years and knew of the quality of the business, particularly in multi-national SD-WAN deployments and their unique network monitoring and management portal developed in-house," said Horton.
"With their strength in serving larger mid-market and enterprise customers and complementary services, the FluidOne board and I saw a great fit to our connected cloud solutions strategy, broadening the offering to our combined customers. In particular, with FluidOne being an SD-WAN partner with Fortinet and VMWare, and SAS having strong SD-WAN experience with Cisco, combined this gives market-leading capabilities and customer choice in SD-WAN and hybrid networks.
"Both businesses have services that will benefit each other's customers, and we have already started working together on joint opportunities. I look forward to working with the management team and staff at SAS, and I am excited at the opportunities that our combined capabilities give to support our ambitious growth plans and to serve our customers"