'Nice step in the right direction' - Computacenter CEO Norris on Business IT Source acquisition

Mike Norris told CRN that adding BITS to its portfolio will increase its US revenue

Computacenter's CEO has said its acquisition of Business IT Source (BITS) is a "nice step in the right direction" as it looks to further grow in the US.

Mike Norris told CRN that adding BITS to its portfolio will increase its US revenue and "fits very well" with the rest of Computacenter's global business .

Hatfield based Computacenter claims that BITS is one of the "fastest growing" value-added resellers in the US, with the company employing around 100 people and reporting revenues of $245m in 2021.

Norris said: "It fits very well with the profile of business that we have elsewhere in the world.

"It was in a geographical territory where we have no customer overlap and it broadly does the things that we want it to do for customers."

Computacenter said the existing BITS leadership team will stay to run the business as a separate operating unit within Computacenter United States to "maximise the growth opportunity".

Norris said the company will integrate BITS during 2024.

He said: "It's a nice addition to our business, it increases our US revenues by about 10 per cent. We're very pleased to have it, it's a nice step in the right direction."

In a statement when the acquisition was announced on Wednesday, Norris said BITS gives "us a much stronger presence in the Midwest of the United States".

"The Buffalo Grove Integration Centre will allow us to serve more of our Midwest regional customers locally over time, helping us to meet our sustainability goals," he said.

The deal marks Computacenter's third acquisition in the US. In 2018 it made its first M&A move in the States after striking a deal to acquire FusionStorm, giving the company a foothold in the US market.

It then made a big splash in 2020 with $1.2bn-revenue firm Pivot TS, which roughly doubled the size of its operations in the US.