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Spirit Telecom has struck a $6.9 million deal to acquire two Melbourne managed services providers, Trident Business Group and Neptune Managed Services, a move that will see the publicly-listed company launch a new business unit, Trident IT Solutions.
Neptune Managed Services, which claims Citrix, Cisco, HP, Microsoft and Sophos among its vendor partners, refers to itself as an associate of Trident Computer Services, which specialises in several areas, including managed services, security and continuity.
Spirit told shareholders on 14 February that its new business unit will focus on delivering custom designed cloud-based IT and internet solutions for high-growth verticals in the areas of education, health and aged care.
The company claims the latest buys represent its largest and most strategically critical acquisition to date.
The deal sees Trident CEO Katie Bentley appointed CEO of the new Trident IT Solutions division, while Neptune CEO Geoff Bentley will step into the role of Spirit’s chief sales officer.
“It is a really exciting time to be joining Spirit, and I am ecstatic to be joining in the capacity of CEO of Trident IT Solutions,” Bentley said. “Bringing the two businesses together opens doors for both of our organisations -- Spirit’s strength in fixed-wireless internet and breadth of managed IT services means that we can now create market-leading IT solutions for businesses right across Australia.”
The acquisitions are part of a broader strategy by Spirit to transition from a telco player to a full-blown end-to-end IT services provider.
"This is a transformational period for Spirit and through the acquisition of these businesses, Spirit will build and strengthen cloud security, data and managed IT services capabilities whilst providing entry into target growth verticals," Spirit managing director Sol Lukatsky said.
In January, Spirit ramped up its presence in NSW through the acquisition of managed IT services business Cloud Business Technology (Cloud BT).
In February last year, the company flagged plans to focus on acquisitions in the second half of the 2019 financial year, saying at the time that it had a shortlist of three companies with complementary wireless network assets that are moving through the due diligence process.
Spirit Telecom went on to acquire telecommunications carrier LinkOne in April 2019, along with its group of companies including Anttel Communications Group, Ignite Broadband and Wells Research for $5.7 million.
By May, the company had announced its second acquisition in a month, with the $300,000 purchase of telecommunications provider Building Connect.
In early July 2019, the company had jumped back on the acquisition bandwagon with the $2.6 million purchase of managed services provider Arinda IT.
By the end of that month, the company had added yet another acquisition to its belt with the purchase of managed services provider Phoenix Austec for $1.6 million.
