Midlands IT business bought by London firm
BIRMINGHAM IT services group Arden has been bought by a London-based cloud computing specialist Babble Cloud.
Arden, which operates from offices in Edgbaston, deals mainly with mid-market enterprise customers and has carried out a series of acquisitions over the past three years.
The undisclosed buyout provides Babble with its first office outside of the capital and is expected to double revenue to nearly £20 million and create a combined customer base of more than 1,200. Nigel Walker, Arden Group’s former managing director and majority owner, said: “It gives me great pride and pleasure to have built up Arden Group into the organisation it is today.
“The two organisations are an extremely good fit, our cultures are aligned, Arden’s product portfolio is entirely complementary and I am confident knowing that our customers will continue to receive the standards of care and attention we have always delivered.”
Babble is backed by private equity firm LDC. It is the second acquisition it has made this year, following its buyout of Direct Response Plus.
Chief executive Matt Parker said: “It’s unusual to get a chance to double the size of a business with a single acquisition but, with our purchase of Arden Group, we have done exactly that.
“More importantly, we’ve significantly strengthened our product portfolio, added real talent to the leadership and management teams and given ourselves a great footprint outside London with a team that has built a loyal customer base.
“This feels more like a merger than an acquisition in that we are bringing two highly complementary businesses together and I am very excit- ed about the future as one team.”
Alex Clark, investment director at LDC and a member of the Babble Cloud board, added: “The acquisition of Arden Group will continue to strengthen Babble’s core proposition as well as extend the business’s span across the UK.
“Since partnering with Matt and the team, we have been actively looking to drive scale in what is a highly competitive market and this second acquisition in our first year of partnership forms part of a wider ongoing growth strategy as we look to build a business with longstanding value.”