IT Lab: JMC buy won't make us arrogant
IT firm insists it won't try to force its business practices on newly acquired firm
Reseller JMC's new owner has promised not to dictate to the firm post-acquisition and insists its claims are not just "fluff" to keep staff and customers happy.
Yesterday, IT Lab bought JMC for an undisclosed amount in a move the former claims will create a near-£30m reseller firm.
Speaking to CRN today, IT Lab's chief executive Peter Sweetbaum insisted that JMC was snapped up on its merit and will not be subject to "arrogant" changes.
"One of the things that is clear to us is there are some things JMC does extremely well, and vice versa," he said. "There is no prescriptive methodology to how we will do this [integration] whatsoever. JMC's formula is too strong and too good for [someone] arrogant to overlay their business processes on top of it. It will be the best of both and we will leverage our collective strengths.
"And I genuinely mean that, it is not just fluff to the staff and customers."
IT Lab has a strong focus on support and services, while it dips its toe into the infrastructure side of things, while JMC is the opposite, Sweetbaum said, highlighting the firms' complementary technology fit.
Including JMC, IT Lab will employ about 300 staff, with whom Sweetbaum insists he will be open during the integration.
"We are going to do this very slowly; there is no need to rush into integration without getting to know each other really well. There is a lot of mutual respect."
IT Lab is based in London while JMC's head office is in Manchester. Yesterday Sweetbaum said the geographic spread his firm can now offer was a key driver in the JMC buy.
Today he said he does not foresee headcount reduction or office changes during the integration process, insisting JMC is successful as it is.
"Both organisations are growing and are really strong organisations," he said. "[The acquisition] was driven by the strong, complementary fit [JMC is] for our portfolio. We would never have done it if JMC needed significant remedial work to transform its business model. Both of us are very profitable and capable of running ourselves independently – it is the best of both worlds."
While Sweetbaum would not be drawn on a specific growth or future sales targets, he said "significant" growth was the plan.
"We're going to grow in a solid and controlled way," he said. "There will be opportunities to bolt on alternative capabilities on a strategic basis, but what we're not doing is an uncontrolled buy-and-build which is concerning, like the 2e2s of the world. It's about really strong, controlled growth – principally organically and through strategic acquisition."