Imerja MD: Intercity takeover is 'natural fit'
Imerja's MD Ian Jackson claims security VAR's takeover by Intercity will help it land bigger public sector deals
Security VAR Imerja has claimed its takeover by unified comms player Intercity is a "real natural fit", and will help it go after bigger deals in the public sector.
Imerja, which partners with Check Point, Juniper and Extreme Networks, was acquired by Intercity on Friday for an undisclosed amount. For its last financial year ending 31 July, Imerja's EBITA was £1.35m on revenues of £9.5m.
Speaking with CRN, managing director of Imerja, Ian Jackson, said the deal will help it go after bigger contracts in the public sector because it provides more weight to its revenues, which is looked at by the regulators.
"As an organisation they have a very strong balance sheet that will help Imerja as we continue to operate in the public sector space," he said. "We are keen to develop and secure further opportunities like the [deal with] Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Merseyside. We are keen to build upon that success and a fundamental part of that is making sure you are substantial."
Having this financial support to help win bigger deals was why the firm set about looking for an investor or a buyer with the help of merger advisors KPMG last year, he said.
"You can't have an organisation turning over £9.5m like Imerja trying to win a £9m contract," he added.
Jackson said that Intercity also provides a good complementary fit for Imerja, both with its technology around cloud services and mobility, and with its ethos.
"Culturally they are a really good fit," he said. "It's a young team and they are very ambitious to develop their product and services portfolio. I am one of the founders of Imerja, and when I set out 12 months ago with KPMG to find a suitable investor and/or home, if I wrote everything down [we wanted], Intercity would have ticked every one of them."
Imerja has offices in Bolton, Hertfordshire and Leicestershire, and Jackson said none of them would be closed down. He added that there will be no job cuts, or changes to senior management and that the Imerja brand will continue for "the foreseeable future", following the deal.
Imerja is not the first security VAR snapped up by a bigger player in recent months, with Accumuli, Sysec and Intellect Security among the list of acquired firms this year. Jackson said this acquisition falls into that trend.
"I think there are a lot of organisations that are looking to broaden their product capability and make themselves a-one-stop shop for customers and this is another example of that," he said. "I don't think it dilutes the proposition, it just enhances our proposition."
Market thoughts
Oliver Rickeard, sales director at Check Point partner Atomos Networks, said the deal shows that having a security offering is becoming more important to bigger organisations.
"If you look at Intercity, they don't have a network security arm so what they have done is bolstered their unified comms arm where Check Point is making some headway," he said. "Because they have a good cloud offering and if you want to support it security wise, Check Point is a good solution to support security around unified comms.
"It's good for the security market," he said. "If you look at where Intercity has been for 30 years, you can only sell so much comms. But security is never ending, you have to keep improving it, as someone gets better, the hackers get better and you can't just sit on your laurels."
Etienne Greeff, CEO of security reseller SecureData Europe, said the deal shows how important services are in the market.
"I guess everyone thinks that there is clearly an appetite for good quality services business out there, and this is another example of that," he said. "If you think that the other recent acquisitions that have been made, there has all been a common theme, that's strong services components. So if you are willing to invest in the future, make tough decision and be patient to build a proper services business, then the rewards are there."