CRN's Top 5 channel acquisitions of 2023 (so far)
Amid an M&A slowdown, here are the most acquisitive channel firms of 2023
After several years of volatility in the channel and with volatility in the channel at the beginning of the year, M&A is just now beginning to slow down.
With three months left in the year, and the busiest period for mergers likely behind us, CRN lists the most interesting channel M&A moves of 2023 so far.
1. eBuyer finds new ownership for growth
eBuyer, the Yorkshire-based tech e-tail giant, changed hands in March.
Mark Reed and Rich Marsden, the new owners, have ambitious plans for the company. The acquisition marked the end of West Retail Group's 19-year ownership of eBuyer.
With revenues of £241m in 2021, eBuyer employs over 200 staff.
Marsden, who took on the role of CEO, and Reed, an industry veteran, previously collaborated in 1999 at Realtime Distribution.
They see significant growth potential for eBuyer, with plans for EU expansion and the development of gaming and PC lines.
Since the buyout, Marsden has focused his efforts on rationalising the reseller's distribution network, he told CRN in a recent interview.
"Moving to a preferred partner status is a big change for eBuyer, and we've selected a number of distributors to remain as preferred partners. A number have been removed from our supply chain.
"So we've simplified our supply chain to make it easier and so that we can now work closely with our preferred partners to build our business, as opposed to having multiple distributors competing all the time for the same purchase order," he explains.
Read on to find out more about the M&A strategies of SCC, inTEC, Node4 and Pax8...
CRN's Top 5 channel acquisitions of 2023 (so far)
Amid an M&A slowdown, here are the most acquisitive channel firms of 2023
2. SCC's strategic moves for scale and services
In March, SCC made a strategic move by acquiring product reseller Vohkus.
With revenues approaching £100m, Vohkus presented SCC with an opportunity for scale.
SCC CEO James Rigby emphasised the importance of scale in the evolving market.
"Vohkus brings a portfolio of clients that would have taken SCC a long time to win on its own. This acquisition is about unlocking higher-margin services for Vohkus and selling them to existing clients, making it a classic scale play," he said at the time.
Earlier this month, SCC made another acquisition, buying out digital engineering specialist, Nimble.
Having made the move to services years ago, SCC's head of strategy and corporate development, Christine Olmsted, explained that this latest move was one aimed at the digital transformation market.
"Our customers are asking us to do even more for them than we do already," she said.
"We have a long history of being a trusted partner in the reselling space, and we've expanded over time to a managed services arena. Now we're looking to do transformation lead services for them as well, and Nimble give us that ability to do that transformation lead service work at scale."
CRN's Top 5 channel acquisitions of 2023 (so far)
Amid an M&A slowdown, here are the most acquisitive channel firms of 2023
3. inTEC Group expands with Sweethaven
July saw inTEC Group, specialising in IT for SMEs and the education sector, expand its UK presence and Google partnership with the acquisition of Sweethaven Managed IT Services.
This marked the MSP's fourteenth acquisition since 2016.
Sweethaven's Reigate HQ joined inTEC's UK coverage, enhancing digital transformation offerings and opening new opportunities for schools and businesses.
inTEC Group's CEO, Simon Howitt, expressed excitement about the collaboration's potential.
In a recent interview with CRN, Howitt confirmed that the group is not planning to slow down on its acquisition drive this year, and instead would continue to buy out smaller specialists.
"We've got another acquisition lined up for September/October. We've got two or three more in the earlier stages of discussions. If they were to mature, we would anticipate closing by the end of the year or the first quarter of next year," he revealed.
Growth in new territories will be a key focus for potential future acquisitions, Hewitt said.
CRN's Top 5 channel acquisitions of 2023 (so far)
Amid an M&A slowdown, here are the most acquisitive channel firms of 2023
4. Node4 bolsters security with ThreeTwoFour
Also in July, Node4 announced the acquisition of ThreeTwoFour, an information security and technology risk specialist.
This marked Node4's third acquisition in 18 months and significantly expanded their cybersecurity capabilities, especially for enterprise-level clients and public sector projects.
The deal also brought onboard ThreeTwoFour's founder, Alex Coburn, and his team.
"It had been in the works for a while. I've been at Node4 for about 18 months now. As I joined, cybersecurity was top of the list in terms of priorities to look at both organically through M&A," Mark Cox, director of M&A at the Derby-HQ MSP told CRN in an interview in September.
"We were subscale compared to the market opportunity in terms of our staffing and our capability in that area, so it was a priority for a long time.
"It's a nice complement to what we have in terms of cybersecurity which is more of a technology, platform-based offering and a managed services element. They have a consultative-led offering."
The highly acquisitive firm, which has made ten deals in the past decade, is now shifting gears to focus its M&A strategically on particular markets or capabilities, rather than aiming for sheer scale.
CRN's Top 5 channel acquisitions of 2023 (so far)
Amid an M&A slowdown, here are the most acquisitive channel firms of 2023
Pax8's Microsoft Dynamics 365 play
In February, cloud marketplace distributor, Pax8 strengthened its Microsoft Dynamics 365 expertise with the acquisition of Bam Boom Cloud.
With over 135 employees across multiple countries, Bam Boom focuses on the SMB market.
Pax8's CEO, John Street, sees the acquisition as an opportunity to create new market strategies and services for MSPs.
The goal is to tap into the growing market of business process automation and expand their share of the Microsoft business applications services market, projected to reach $10.3bn by 2025.
It also made two global acquisitions in 2022 - Microsoft Gold Cloud Solutions Partner Umbrellar and Baltics cloud services distributor TVG.
"We currently have 11 offices around Europe, and we are getting to the 400 mark of total colleagues, we also provide sales and support in 26 different European languages," said Harald Nuij, CEO of Pax8 EMEA, told CRN in March.
"Our plans are to support our MSPs and become the best localised support in every corner in Europe for MSPs."