2e2 administrator in talks with multiple suitors

FTI Consulting says it has received significant interest in 2e2's UK business as over one in five staff are laid off

Multiple firms have expressed an interest in buying 2e2's UK business, according to its administrator.

Last night, FTI Consulting said discussions were ongoing with a number of interested parties to achieve a sale of the UK business, which went into administration on Monday.

It also confirmed that 319 of 2e2's 1,442 UK staff have been laid off due to the recent deterioration in trading at the Newbury-based firm.

"Significant interest has been expressed by third parties in acquiring the business and we are currently exploring a number of options," said Simon Granger, joint administrator of FTI Consulting.

With UK revenue of £306m in 2011, 2e2 is the UK's seventh-largest VAR, according to CRN's Top VARs report, meaning any suitor for the whole business would have to be sizable.

Computacenter chief executive Mike Norris yesterday told CRN that he is monitoring the process with interest, predicting that the administrator would favour options that offer a speedy resolution to the process.

O2, which has a joint venture with 2e2, and the big outsourcers may also be taking a look, sources said.

2e2's overseas operations in Ireland, Spain, the Channel Islands, the Netherlands and the US are not affected by the insolvency and are operating normally, FTI said.