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Knight advises on Network Telecom sale
TELECOMS AND TECHNOLOGY adviser Knight Corporate
Finance advised the shareholders of Network Telecom on its
sale to Enreach, the fast-growing European group backed
by pan-European investment company Waterland. The
acquisition by Enreach strengthens its position in the UK IT
and telecommunications market. Founded by Paul Maxfi eld in
1997, Network Telecom provides business telephony, hosted
voice, lines & calls, connectivity, mobile and IT services to
approximately 2,400 small businesses across the UK.
Knight have been working with Network Telecom for a
number of years in an on-going advisory role to the founder.
When Knight were approached by Enreach, who were looking
for a platform UK acquisition, it was able to discuss the
opportunity with Paul knowing that should he be interested,
the business was well placed to go through a transaction
process.
Paul Maxfi eld said: “I have worked with Paul Billingham
at Knight for a number of years and his advice has been
invaluable. Whilst I was not expecting to sell the company at
this stage, the opportunity from Enreach was too good to turn
down. The Knight team ensured that we got the right deal for
everyone at Network Telecom and the transaction could be
completed effi ciently with the minimum of disruption to the
business”.
Opus leverages Virtual1’s innovative network
8×8 HAS FURTHER strengthened its relationship with strategic
reseller partner, Opus Telecoms.
8×8 and Opus are now able to deliver 8×8 services using
Virtual 1’s extensive UK network. This collaboration gives Opus
full control over the management of connectivity, service
delivery and troubleshooting for UK businesses.
This means Opus can provide 8×8 X Series to customers as an
end-to-end solution that guarantees voice quality and reliability
while also enabling Opus to take sole responsibility for support
to deliver the highest standards of service.
Founded in 1992 Opus supports over 1,500 SMB, mid-market
and enterprise customers across the UK and beyond, in both
Paul Billingham,
Director – Knight
Corporate Finance
the public and private sectors.
Sales Director Michael O’Donnell at Opus, said “What sets us
apart in the market is our commitment to quality service. We
want to offer true value to our customers but if service drops
because of a connectivity problem through a third party, it can
be more of a challenge to fi x a customer’s problem. Partnering
with 8×8 allows us to offer the best cloud technology for our
customers, with global reach, all in one platform. We are a fastgrowing
company and need a partner who can match this scale
– the commitment from the 8×8 team to fi nd bespoke solutions
for us and our customers means they are the perfect partner
for us.”
SIMWOOD COMPLETES DOUBLE ACQUISITION
WHOLESALE CARRIER SIMWOOD Group has made two
acquisitions, bringing it a retail brand, a channel
brand, and a wholly owned scalable multi-branded
hosted PBX platform.
It has acquired Sipcentric Limited and Birchills
Telecom Limited. Sipcentric, a Simwood partner,
provides white-label platform-as-a-service hosted
PBX to channel partners. Birchills Telecom is a
veteran reseller serving the SME community.
Commenting on the deal, Simwood Founder and
CEO Simon Woodhead (pictured) said, “Sipcentric
has sailed under the radar somewhat and built,
without any doubt in my mind, the best architected,
most user-friendly and modern platform in the
market. They’ve done an amazing job, but few know
about it, yet.”
Sipcentric Founder and CEO, Charles Chance
said: “Today marks the beginning of a new chapter
for Sipcentric. We’ve spent 9 years building
our platform and team without any signifi cant
investment. We’ve seen the market evolve
considerably in that time, yet our commitment to
innovation and delivering a fi rst-class service has
enabled us to continue to drive forward. As part
of the Simwood Group we’ll not only be able to
deliver more value to customers faster, with their
technical and commercial expertise we’ll also be
able to extend our reach...”
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10 | Comms Business Magazine | November 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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