B2net sells to Swedish suitor for £12m

Proact IT Group arrives in UK market with acquisition of top NetApp partner

Acquisitive Swedish storage integrator Proact IT Group has leapt into the UK market with a deal to snap up B2net.

Proact has paid £12m to acquire a 75 per cent stake in the Chesterfield-based VAR, with an option to snaffle the remaining 25 per cent, which is currently owned by B2net management. The Stockholm-headquartered firm partners with vendors including NetApp, EMC, VMware and Hitachi. It posted 2010 pre-tax profits of SEK70.1m (£6.9m) on sales of SEK1.4bn.

B2net recently grew its top line to about £50m with its buyout of Cisco Gold partner Essant. It now becomes Proact's third acquisition inside six months, following in the footsteps of Czech outfit Storyflex and Dutch player Databasement.

Proact chief executive Olof Sand said: "B2net is the leading integrator in the UK in the field of storage and archiving, it has the same position in the UK as Proact has in other markets. To get this position in the UK is a very important step for Proact's expansion in Europe."

Jason Clark, chief executive of B2net, added: "Over the past decade B2net has become the number one storage integrator in the UK. We are now in a period of change and the opportunity to match our skill and expertise with Proact's business model fits our future very well. It makes it possible for us to deliver additional value to our international customers, re-use offerings within the group and share knowledge and experience between the employees."