Investor shells out for Peapod
UK reseller and professional services arm plucked from administration by equity company
Reseller Peapod UK and consultancy arm Peapod Professional Services have risen from the ashes of administration after being bought out by private equity firm Global Emerging Markets (GEM).
Last week, CRN revealed that Peapod UK's sister company, Peapod Distribution, had been bought by OpenPSL. Two days later, GEM pounced on the two remaining Peapod businesses. They had previously been owned by e-initiative (CRN, 28 October).
GEM brokered the sale of the two companies through a firm called Communications Technology Investment Ltd (CTIL) The deal was closed on 6 December.
Chris Durnan, formerly sales director at Peapod UK, has been appointed as managing director of the reseller.
"It's business as usual, much as we were doing before and during administration," he said. "We are now going to see some serious investment [from GEM], which will allow us to obtain vendor partners. Thanks to GEM our group will be able to give guarantees to vendors."
Durnan added that all of Peapod UK's vendors had maintained their commitments to the VAR throughout the administration period. He added that all of the reseller's staff had been kept on after the sale.
Rakesh Gandhi, an investor in GEM and CTIL, said: "We first looked at Peapod in November, but backed off because someone else wanted to buy."
The investors considered buying Peapod Distribution as well as the reseller at the time. "We came back later that month, and we are very happy with what we've got," said Gandhi.
He added that GEM was an investor that "consolidates" other firms. Gandhi founded Apple's distribution in India as well as several other Asian countries during the 1980s, and also served as chairman and chief executive of distributor Odin International.
The deal will separate Peapod UK from Peapod Distribution, a relationship that has been dogged by controversy in the past.
"The relationship was not easy to manage," said Durnan. "We would come across the same customers as them, and as Peapod UK, would always give way to Peapod Distribution's people. Because of this investment we are now a straight-down-the-line reseller business."