AVM adds seventh buy in six years with VC-Net

Fast-growing Cisco partner to seal growth plans for audiovisual integrator

Twickenham integrator Audio Visual Machines (AVM) has underlined its claim to be the largest AV SI in the UK by acquiring managed video services provider VC World, trading as VC-Net.

Terms of the deal were undisclosed this morning. According to AVM, the purchase is its seventh in six years.

Sandy MacPherson, chairman of AVM, said VC-Net had extensive experience and resources in both networking and conferencing.

"This will complement our AVM Connect services and allow us to offer complete UC to our clients," he said.

VC-Net has specialist and capacity networking skills as well as audio and webconferencing. MacPherson said VC-Net has built "an enviable reputation" among blue-chip customers, and will go forward as the UC arm of VC-Net.

It is hoped that there will be no redundancies, as the 23 staff members' skills were an important attraction, he said.

"UC is the fastest-growing area of our business, and we would expect it to grow at around the same rate as Cisco, Polycom and similar," MacPherson said. "Over the past couple of years, we have grown at more than 100 per cent a year."

Christopher Wade, executive chairman of VC-Net, said AVM's greater scale and AV Global Alliance partnership would enable it to fully realise its managed video ambitions.

"It has had such a tremendous uptake since its launch in autumn last year," claimed Wade.

VC-Net was incorporated in 2000 and is based on Clerkenwell Road, central London. The firm has a £10m turnover and 25 per cent annual growth rates, and describes itself as one of Tandberg's top five videoconferencing network partners.

Most recently, the company – which routes all its calls over its own virtual network – signed a deal with distributor Azlan in October 2010.

VC-Net's main shareholders were private equity player MMC Ventures, which invested £1m in the start-up in 2001, and Yorkshire Fund Managers.

Twenty-year-old AVM claimed the position of the UK's largest AV integrator when an acquisition of Matrix in mid-2008 doubled its staff numbers to 250. In 2010, it enjoyed revenue of £35m a year, according to MacPherson.

AVM has offices in London, Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham, Scotland and the south east, and has 700 customers worldwide. It remains on the hunt for fresh acquisitions, MacPherson said.