Smee builds on Appspeed

Cohort and Appspeed will not merge, although further acquisitions are not ruled out

Grahame Smee: Will remain managing director of security distributor Cohort

Grahame Smee has refused to rule out further acquisitions after he snapped up specialist distributor Appspeed last week.
Smee, who will also remain as managing director of security distributor Cohort, bought the virtualisation, storage and server-based computing specialist for an undisclosed sum (Channelweb 14 October).

The two firms will not be merged as part of the deal and will work as separate entities, although they might share some back-office functions, said Smee.

“Cohort works with security resellers that want an understanding of how to secure the virtual
world and Appspeed’s partners are involved in virtualisation or server-based computing, but also want to get into compliance. We can now help both.”

He revealed the two companies would be recruiting on the service and sales side, but stressed that for now, Appspeed’s existing management structure will stay in place.

Greg Carlow, managing director of VAR Repton said it was an interesting move. “There is a bit of a lull in this space at the moment, but if the company carries products that can offer value, this is what our customers want.”