XploITe pursues latest acquisition
Storage reseller poised to swoop for acquisition target
Storage VAR XploITe is nearing its goal of £100m annual turnover as it sinks its teeth into its latest conquest.
The firm, which is led by Ian Smith, vowed to make a purchase every quarter in 2007 following its first acquisition, Posetiv.
Last week CRN revealed its latest purchase is believed to be IBM reseller Anix.
Neil Ledger, founder of storage distributor VADition, said: “Smith is doing what he said he was going to do. The acquisition of a £40m firm gets him to where he wants to be. He now needs to do some back office consolidation to scale the business.”
Jason Rabbetts, managing director at VAR StorPoint, said: “By buying a significant IBM player XploITe is making a big statement about which manufacturer it wants to be friends with.”
Kristian Connor, sales director at IBM partner AN4 Group, said: “Consolidation in the IBM field is inevitable. IBM pulled out of the desktop market so it makes sense for more systems integrators to work together.”
Simon Edmonds, responsible for marketing at Anix, refused to comment on the acquisition, but said: “Anix works across financial services, retail, public sector, and industrial and manufacturing sectors.”
XploITe was unavailable for comment as CRN went to press.