Pulsant buys Onyx to create £75m cloud player

New chairman arrives as latest acquisition extends Pulsant's datacentre network to 15

After its CEO recently told CRN it will continue on the acquisition trail, cloud outfit Pulsant has made a big buy in the form of Onyx as it announced the arrival of a new chairman.

The addition of Onyx, Pulsant's first major acquisition since the arrival of new private equity investors two years ago, will create an outfit with revenues of £75m, 400 staff, 4,000 customers and a network of 15 owned and operated UK datacentres.

Backed by private-equity firm Livingbridge, Onyx specialises in cloud, colocation, remote and on-site IT management, workplace recovery, applications management and security. It has five datacentres, in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sheffield and Newcastle.

Pulsant CEO Mark Howling said Onyx represents the latest step in a "targeted" acquisition strategy.

"The acquisition increases the scale of our business and the breadth of services we can offer, which is crucial as multi-cloud environments become more complex and more important," Howling said.

Onyx CEO Neil Stephenson added: "We have known Pulsant for many years and always felt that combining Onyx and Pulsant would provide a very strong UK-wide player. Both businesses have complementary capabilities and locations, and this acquisition enables the enlarged business to offer a stronger, broader range of services to our joint customers. The cultures of our two organisations are also very similar, which was a big factor in selecting Pulsant as the acquirer."

The news came as Onyx announced it has appointed former Telecity CEO Mike Tobin as its chairman.

"Mike has an excellent reputation in the industry, a broad understanding of the datacentre and cloud markets, and experience of growing businesses in the UK and overseas," Howling said. "I am delighted that he has agreed to become our chairman, which is a significant signal of Pulsant's quality and ambitions."