Chess has the Last Word
In seventh deal of the year, reseller acquires communications firm's £1m client list
Comms reseller Chess has completed its seventh acquisition this year, snapping up the client list of Last Word Communications. The reseller's 400 SME customers spend a combined total of £1m on calls each year.
The move comes only a month after Chess bought Leicester-based reseller OCIS, in a deal that netted Chess a revenue stream of £3m in call charges.
Despite the lower turnover, Last Word Communications cost considerably more to buy, according to David Pollock, chief executive of Chess.
"This deal was very different. OCIS had got itself in a pickle over finances and its service was switched off, leaving its customers in the lurch," Pollock said. "We stepped in and bought the customer base and got the service restored in days. As you can imagine, we were in a much stronger bargaining position with OCIS."
Chess refused to divulge any figures, although Pollock admitted that the acquisition of OCIS had been "a snip".
"This is the third company I've sold, so I know what I'm doing," said Matthew Sullivan, managing director of Last Word Communications, who had previously started up and sold Bright Fibre Communications before repeating the process with Copernicus Global Billing Services.
"The customers will be happy because Chess is a bigger firm with a wider range of products."
Pollock denied there would be a repeat of the customer exodus that followed OCIS's take-over.
"Some people got fed up and decided to go back to paying high prices with BT, but no more than 20. A lot of customers were grateful that we'd rescued them. Someone even called me the Florence Nightingale of telecoms," Pollock claimed.
Chess will continue on the acquisition trail next year, he added. "We bought seven companies this year and we want to buy seven more in the next.
"Being a bigger company we can get better rates on calls, so it makes sense for Last Word. You'll see a lot more of these take-overs in the industry next year."