Maxima snares ninth conquest

VAR snaps up IT services specialist for £18m

Acquisitive VAR Maxima Holdings has made its ninth acquisition since listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in November 2004.

Having swooped on CRM specialist SevenThree in March, Maxima has now coughed up £18m for IT services specialist 3net, which it will immediately integrate into its managed services unit.

3net holds Specialist Support Partner (SSP) status with Nortel, which allows it to support Nortel VARs lacking installation and maintenance skills.

Surrey-based 3net, which achieved a pre-tax profit of £1.7m on a turnover of £6.1m for the year to 31 January, also boasts partnerships with Cisco, Crossbeam and Check Point.

The majority of the transaction will be paid in cash, with £11.5m funded by Maxima’s placement of over 4.4 million new shares on AIM.

Kelvin Harrison, chief executive at Maxima, said: “The specialist technical skills of the 3net team in networking and security infrastructure will enable Maxima to offer full end-to-end solutions and managed services in IT applications and infrastructure.”

Arman Khan, director of 3net added: “Being part of Maxima will enable us to accelerate our growth as well as help us bid for much larger projects.”

Both Khan and fellow 3net founder Andrew Boosey will stay on at Maxima, although 3net’s third major shareholder, Sena Thornber, intends to resign from his post.

Maxima’s other recent conquests include Ringwood Group, QED Business Systems and Cognition Solutions.