DWS snaps up Giacom

Cloud service specialist Giacom has been snapped up by Daisy Group-owned Digital Wholesale Solutions (DWS) in a move that should add more muscle to its unified communications (UC) and converged IT offerings.

Hull-based Giacom has been around since 1999, and already supports more than 70,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through its cloud platform via a network of 3,400 ITC clients. DWS is a fellow channel-only software platform business that works with more than 2,500 partners.

Giacom delivers a range of options through its platform, including a number of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, including Azure, Microsoft 365, and security and backup offerings.

The DWS acquisition – the terms of which were not disclosed – marks an exit for its owner, private equity player Livingbridge, which picked up the business in 2017. It also marks an opportunity for minority shareholder LDC, which had backed the firm in 2016, to end its relationship with the business.

Giacom has enjoyed strong growth since it took the decision four years ago to become a cloud marketplace and indirect cloud software provider. Over the past four financial periods, the business has been growing at a CAGR of 52.1%, fuelled by the industry wide shift towards the cloud.

The coronavirus pandemic has not had too much impact on that momentum, and the firm boasts the achievement of being named a Sunday Times Tech Track 100 company for the past four years. It recently passed the milestone of one million product licenses sold.  

Giacom’s CEO Mike Wardell will remain in post and will keep driving the businesses forward with the existing management team, with a brief to keep delivering its current strategy. Where DWS views opportunities is around cross-pollinating products and sharing expertise across the wider group.

“I’ve admired the Giacom business for a number of years – a great channel-only business, obsessed about delivering great products and a great experience for partners through a great platform,” said Terry O’Brien, CEO of DWS.

“Bringing together these two high growth businesses in unified comms and cloud services is a huge step forward in our plans to support an ever converging ICT partner channel. This will be great for our combined 5,500 partners,” he added.

Wardell was also upbeat about the tie-up and said that it was clear the acquisition would benefit its staff, partners and customers.

“The more time we spent with the team from DWS, the more similarities we saw in our businesses and how we approach the channel,” he said.

“As we work together, I’m excited about the extra value we can add for our customers, providing access to products, training and expertise that helps them stay ahead of a changing market,” he added.

Adam Holloway at Livingbridge, said that the business it was selling was in a good position to deliver future growth: “It has been a real pleasure to partner with Giacom over the past three years by providing the support required to transform the business and rapidly build market share.

“With more people working from home over the long-term and companies overhauling their strategies to maximise workforce productivity, cloud technology adoption is only expected to accelerate.”