Microsoft case no obstacle to future growth: Discount-Licensing

A year of consolidation and investment has positioned secondhand supplier for expansion

Surplus software licensing specialist Discount-Licensing has regrouped following a high-profile court settlement with Microsoft and is now on track to reap a 200 per cent expansion in revenue.

Noel Unwin, founder and managing director of Discount-Licensing, said the reseller now expects to expand by at least 150 per cent, perhaps 200 per cent, in 2015 as it has reinvested to emphasise growth within the European Economic Area.

"[The] Microsoft [case] did not affect our European business – but we had to consolidate," he told ChannelWeb. "So we've spent 2014 and into 2015 investing in IT, procurement and partnerships."

The growth will include additional human resources. Staff from HND or college graduate level right up to those with years of experience in software asset management and resale are sought, Unwin said. It also means investment in developing collaborative partner relationships on the ground – particularly in Europe.

Growth is expected within the UK as well, he said – but Europe is the largest opportunity for the firm, which sources and supplies surplus and disused licences for software from vendors including Microsoft, Adobe, AVG, Oracle and SAP.

Following a Microsoft suit which hit the headlines in February, it had become necessary to "take a look at our business and see where we could clean it up" in terms of grey or potentially contested areas around licensing rights, he said.

Within Europe, the sale and purchase of such stock is protected under the EU Software Directive 2009/24/EC.

Microsoft had filed proceedings in 2013 against Discount-Licensing for breach of copyright in respect of US (non-EEA) sourced software licences, which were then sold to a relatively small percentage of Discount-Licensing's customers in the EEA region, as reported by ChannelWeb.

Discount-Licensing settled out of court in February – a decision which Unwin (pictured) hinted was partly based on the potential cost of a suit to the business – but is still able to resell Microsoft software licensing through the conventional channels, just like any other partner or reseller.

Since then, Discount-Licensing has stepped further away from the insolvency market as a source for licences, and refocused on where the law is clearer; in other words, within the EEA, Unwin confirmed.

"Insolvency is now less than five per cent of the business," he said.