Claranet swallows a couple of tech minnows

MSP buys Linux IT and biz continuity specialist Techgate

Euro managed services outfit Claranet has used some of its£100m + war chest to dip into the Brit tech market, devouring minnows Linux IT and and Biz Continuity/ DR specialist Techgate.

The London headquartered firm that has tentacles in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, renegotiated its finances with funders Ares, Goldman Sachs and RBS in March.

The business started life as an ISP in ’96 but was at great pains in recent years to move beyond basic connectivity into business services, making numerous acquisitions including STH and Star.

Fellow capital-based Techgate sells infrastructure services, employs 27 staff, and has 200 punters including Capita, BLM and Carestream Health. It turned over £4.9m in calendar ’14.

Bristol located Linux IT sells managed services for open source tech of a… you guessed it, Linux favour, whether that be on-premise or hosted.

The business has 20 workers and 200 customers ranging from ITV to Euro Car and services-based reseller CAE. It turned over £2.6m last year.

Claranet was the victim of hack back in 2008 when a major security vulnerability in the Linux kernel allowed fiends to gain root privileges and replace the firm’s web customers’ index.html files with their calling card.

The management and staff base for each of the acquired entities are being “maintained” we are told by Claranet and the brands will continue too.

Cross selling will be the order of the day said Charles Nasser, CEO. Claranet now has over 850 staff across the group, some 5,000 customers and turnover of around £150m. ®