Daisy eyes £1bn sales as Phoenix deal closes

Comms provider confident it can snatch 10 per cent of a UK comms and IT infrastructure services market it believes is worth £10bn

Comms provider Daisy Group has reiterated its goal of becoming a £1bn managed services giant after closing its acquisition of Phoenix IT Group.

The £135m deal, announced in May, has been finalised after the duo's merger scheme became effective yesterday following the suspension of Phoenix IT's shares from the London Stock Exchange last week.

In line with what was previously indicated, several of Phoenix's top brass, including chief executive Steve Vaughan, have stepped down from their posts on closure of the deal. CRN understands Phoenix chairman Peter Bertram is among the others to have resigned.

The merged outfit has combined sales of about £620m but Daisy said its goal now is to grow into a unified comms and IT infrastructure giant turning over £1bn, echoing comments new Daisy founder Matthew Riley (pictured) made to CRN in February.

"The worlds of unified communications and IT services are rapidly converging and our customers and partners are asking us to provide a broader range of services under one roof," said Riley – who recently stepped back into the position of executive chairman to make way for new chief executive Neil Muller – in a statement today.

"As such, our ambition is to be the leading provider of unified business communications and IT infrastructure managed services and solutions via our SMB, corporate and partner services businesses in the UK – a marketplace we believe to be worth over £10bn per annum."

Daisy said the addition of Phoenix IT would bring it more than 3,600 new customers and strengthen its hand in the business continuity, IT infrastructure managed services and partner services space.