SpiriTel gobbles up BlackBerry partner

AIM-listed reseller makes second acquisition of the year

Acquisition is SpiriTel's tenth since 2006

Telephony reseller SpiriTel has tied up its tenth acquisition since 2006 as it ploughs on with its " acquire, integrate and grow" strategy.

Alternative Investment Market (AIM)-listed SpiriTel has laid down £2.15m for mobile voice and data reseller Mobotel, its second purchase of 2010.

Up to a further £1m will be paid out if BlackBerry specialist Mobotel meets “rigorous” growth targets over the next two years.

SpiriTel said the acquisition would offer it an opportunity to slingshot voice and data services and IP telephony systems into Mobotel’s customer base of legal and financial services firms.

Fulham-based Mobotel banked a pre-tax profit of £0.3m on modest revenue of £2.1m in its last financial year but SpiriTel chief executive Alastair Mills stressed the firm had a high-value customer base.

“The customer base is particularly attractive in that most connections are BlackBerry and the ARPU [average revenue per user] is well above the industry average,” he said.

Richard Smith, managing director of Mobotel, said: “SpiriTel is recognised as a leading provider of converged communications to business customers and, having worked hard to develop market-leading mobile services, we are looking forward to offering our customers an expanded, integrated product set as part of SpiriTel's business division.”