£20m VAR Richardson Eyres grabbed by Telent

HPE Gold partner also known as NE Computing sells up

Buckinghamshire-based datacentre VAR Richardson Eyres has been snapped up by technology services monster Telent for an undisclosed sum.

Telent, whose previous acquisitions include Cisco Gold partner Telindus, said HPE Gold partner Richardson Eyres would bolster its networking prowess.

Founded over three decades ago by Jon Eyres and Frank Richardson, Richardson Eyres saw turnover dip slightly from £21.2m to £19.3m in its most recent financial year ending December 2015. Post-tax profit also fell slightly from £829,000 to £725,000.

The datacentre infrastructure specialist, formally known as NE Computing, drew £2.5m of sales from annuity cloud and services revenue last year and counts HPE, NetApp, VMware and Nimble Storage among its key allies.

Telent, which designs, supplies, installs and supports services for telecoms companies and enterprises, turned over nearly £400m in its last financial year.

Mark Plato, CEO of Telent, said: "Telent also has a long and successful heritage of building networks. From our earliest days, we've been helping our clients prepare for the future, connect people and protect data.

"With increasing numbers of customers moving to the cloud and requiring more virtual and flexible technology, this will broaden our offering to our existing customers and extend our reach particularly within the ICT space. Additionally, it will offer Richardson Eyres' clients access to Telent's capabilities and expertise."