Accumuli eyes up next acquisition targets

Buy-and-build security reseller pinpoints SIEM as an area for investment

Managed security services outfit Accumuli has confirmed it will forge ahead with its buy-and-build strategy after posting its first full six months of trading.

The Infoblox, ArcSight and Palo Alto partner also pinpointed security and information event management (SIEM) as an area in which it would invest.

For the six months to 30 September, Accumuli posted revenue of £5.5m and pre-tax profit of £0.2m.

During the period, the AIM-listed reseller rebranded its three acquisitions – Boxing Orange, Tuscany Networks and Fujin Technology – under the Accumuli Security banner. It also launched its own DNS and DHCP Activity Monitor technology.

Chairman Nick Kingsbury said: "We continue to assess further acquisition targets that would help the company to fulfil its ambition to consolidate its position as a leading independent provider of MSS in the UK. In particular we look for businesses with strong, recurring managed security service revenue, owned IP that has the potential for further development and a good customer base."

Accumuli confirmed that managing director Will Palmer stepped down from his role at the end of September. He will not be replaced in the short term and the remaining three directors will now be given strategic direction by part-time executive director Ian Smith.

Accumuli said it sees a "real opportunity" in SIEM, driven by regulation, complexity of corporate networks and the increasing sophistication of security threats.

"We are seeing an appetite for these services from our own customers and we need to continue to invest in the development of this managed service in order to benefit," Kingsbury said.

Accumuli stressed that it bore no grudge against the vendors of Boxing Orange after recently announcing it had uncovered a £0.5m black hole in the firm's accounts. It reiterated that the episode had no net finanical impact on trading.

Cris Pikes, chief executive of rival security VAR Sysec, said Accumuli's previous acquisitions had contained some valuable intellectual property, including the Webscreen DDoS product it acquired through Boxing Orange.

He argued Accumuli's finances could stretch to buying a standalone SIEM vendor, mirroring McAfee's recent acquisition of Nitro Security. "Ian [Smith] has a good strategy and he now just needs to keep up the momentum," he said.