Viatel Continues Buying Spree
Colm Piercy’s Viatel, led by CEO Paul Rellis, is a serial acquirer in the IT services space, and concluded its largest buy in December 2021, when ActionPoint in Cork was acquired. ActionPoint was established in May 2005 by David Jeffreys (44) and John Savage (43), with Jonathan Deane (42) joining the board a couple of years later. The trio each spoke for c.25% of the equity, with chairman Ger O’Mahony (63) owning 13% of the venture, and director Karl Dowling (43) owning 8%.
ActionPoint offers software development and IT services, and it broadens Viatel’s activity beyond comms and cloud. ActionPoint Technology Ltd’s accounts for the year to April 2021 disclosed trade debtors of €1.2m, down from €1.7m the year before, liabilities of €1.9m and net worth of €865,000.
Viatel sourced deal finance from AIB, and company filings disclose that this facility amounted to €20m.
In July 2022, Viatel moved to acquire SupportIT, its seventh acquisition in two years, with the purchase bundled into ActionPoint. SupportIT was founded by Joe McGivern in 2004, based in Dublin and supported by a Sligo office. Operating company Tarjo Ltd employed 14 people in 2019 and period-end trade debtors were €320,000. Joe McGivern owned 90% of the venture and Tara McGivern owned 10%.
A larger tech deal in 2022 involved Aspire Technology in Sandyford, which was incorporated in 2009 by Bill Walsh (59). The company kept a low profile and went unlimited in 2017. By the end of 2016, Walsh had grown his initial equity investment of €1,000 into a company net worth of €1.8m. That year Aspire encountered some turbulence, with staffing reduced to 36 people from 53 the year before. In May 2017 the company announced plans to increase headcount to 300.
Walsh sold the business to Japan’s NEC Corporation in July 2022. NEC had annual sales of €20.8bn in the year to March 2022, and booked a net profit of €1.1bn. Aspire’s owner was Inspire Me Software Limited Partnership, with sole directors Bill Walsh and Joan Walsh.