Content+Cloud acquired by Nordic MSP giant

Content+Cloud acquired by Nordic MSP giant

CEO Peter Sweetbaum will continue to lead Content+Cloud under new Nordic parent Advania

Content+Cloud has been acquired by Nordic MSP giant Advania, in a deal which will create a combined group with more than £800m in turnover.

The London-based Microsoft partner, which bills itself as a cloud services and digital transformation provider, generated revenues of £84.5m for its year ending 31 March 2021 and ranked #50 in CRN's Top VARs.

With 800 staff across offices in London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Reading, Cardiff and Cape Town in South Africa, Content+Cloud claims to operate across all three of "Microsoft clouds" - Modern Workplace, Azure and Dynamics - and has earned 16 Microsoft Gold certifications and six Advanced specialisations.

Advania meanwhile is a managed services giant which claims to have 27 locations across Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

The acquisition marks Advania's first expansion outside of the Nordic region as it aims to become a "true leader" in northern Europe.

Acquiring Content+Cloud will bump up its group revenues to £800m and boost its workforce to 3,500 staff, Advania claims.

The deal is expected to close this month.

The UK firm's CEO, Peter Sweetbaum, will continue to lead the business and Content+Cloud will continue operating as a Microsoft-focused cloud partner in the UK.

The deal will expand Advania's reach and breadth of services into the UK market, while Content+Cloud will also be able to bring its own services into the Nordics.

Content+Cloud's private equity backer ECI Partners claimed today that it made a return of 4.1x on its investment and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 32.1 per cent.

Advania CEO Mikael Noaksson, said: "Being able to join forces with Peter and his team is an exceptional opportunity for Advania to enhance our customer proposition and to scale our offering outside the Nordics. For Advania the acquisition of C+C is a major step towards becoming a leading northern European IT services provider with our decentralised model, customer intimacy focus and long-term relationships."

Sweetbaum added: "Over the last five years, Content+Cloud has brought together some of the most exciting businesses within the Microsoft technology ecosystem, making us a leading Microsoft cloud services and digital transformation partner in the UK. Becoming part of the Advania Group, with their well-earned reputation in the Nordics and our mutual focus on customer centricity, presents an incredibly exciting opportunity for the group to build a leading European technology and transformation provider to our clients."

With its roots in Iceland, Advania grew its revenue by more than five fold between 2016 and 2021 and has risen to become a pan-European MSP giant.

The firm has made several acquisitions to expand its managed services, product resale and professional services business across the Nordics.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management acquired a majority stake in Advania in February, and the MSP has since made as many as four acquisitions this year following the change in ownership.

Meanwhile, the deal marks an exit for Content+Cloud's private equity backer ECI Partners following five years of investment in the business.

Formerly called IT Lab, the Content+Cloud brand came into being last year following a string of acquisitions including IT support outfit Mirus IT and Azure specialist Sol-Tec.