Interest grows in Damovo divisions
Speculation rife that parts of group up for sale
The channel is rife with speculation that systems integration group Damovo is looking to sell off one or more of its business divisions.
Damovo, the former direct-sales arm of Ericsson Enterprise, has operations in Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Switzerland, Venezuela, the UK and Ireland.
CRN understands that one or more of these divisions has received acquisition interest from a range of companies, including former owners Ericsson and Siemens.
Paul Renucci, managing director of Damovo UK and Ireland, denied that the geographical regions under his responsibility were in the process of being sold, but he did not rule out the possibility of sales in any of Damovo’s other regions.
“Some of the other Damovo groups may be up for sale, but the UK and Ireland division is not. There are discussions around the other international groups, but I don’t know any more than that,” he said.
Selling operational divisions is not out of character for Damovo. In the last year it sold its Slovakian business arm, and in September last year sold its Australian division to communications firm Telstra for $63.4m.
Andrew Saunders, divisional managing director at distributor Crane, said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if Ericsson re-acquired Damovo as its different country operations have all been successful and they would have retained a strong customer base for Ericsson.”
Rachel Power, an analyst at Canalys, said: “The Damovo Group has already sold two of its divisions so it has experience going down that route, and if it did then it would be a continuation of that trend. Any probable buyer would be a systems integrator or a network operator, but a sale wouldn’t be surprising because it’s a very acquisitive market.”