Eurotel eyes acquisitions

Communications VAR Eurotel is targeting further acquisitions after buying out the direct broadband customer base of ISP Griffin Internet.

The sale represented Griffin's transition to a channel-only vendor, having had an even split of direct and indirect revenues at the time of its management buy-in four years ago. Having focused on a white label indirect strategy since then, at the time of the sale the direct base represented only five per cent of all Griffin end users.

Eurotel is one the ISP's biggest UK partners and Griffin managing director John Dawson claimed the VAR was equipped to support the customers in question. "With the entire company focused on delivering quality service and support to the channel it made sense to pass our direct customers to one of our partners better geared up to manage SMEs," he said.

Eurotel chief executive Nick Williams claimed he hoped the Griffin deal could kickstart a year of acquisitions for his company. With the backing of private equity firm Inflexion, Williams indicated he was looking for voice and data specialists focused on the SME space.

"(The Griffin) acquisition signals our clear intention to acquire more telecommunications businesses during 2009," he said. “We believe that there is a good opportunity to consolidate the fragmented reseller base currently selling to SMEs.”