Spirit has today announced the acquisition of Phoenix Austec Group Pty Ltd, trading as Phoenix Austec, in a $1.6 million deal. The announcement comes less than a month after Spirit’s acquisition of Arinda IT and will see the company continue to expand and strengthen its entry into the Managed IT Service Provider (MSP) sector, while at the same time becoming a one-stop-shop for SMBs across Australia’s East Coast for all their IT, Internet and Communications needs.
The acquisition is the 4th in as many months and will enhance Spirit’s existing product and service offering to its current SME customer base by providing a range of IT services, that can be powered by the telco’s super-fast, Sky-Speed Internet plans. Phoenix will add to the recently acquired Arinda IT managed services product range, which now represents circa 20% of Spirit’s overall revenue.
Established in 2007, Melbourne-based Phoenix provides small businesses with an outsourced managed IT solution including IT security, software as a service (SAAS) and IT consulting services. Phoenix has been particularly successful in the real estate sector but also boasts a broad range of SME customers.
The latest acquisition will be a valuable addition to the growing managed IT services portfolio of Spirit and is expected to be earnings accretive, with Phoenix generating $1.9 million in revenue across more than 100 customers.
Spirit’s approach to acquisitions, which drives its growth and expansion strategy, has proven to be highly successful in the past due to its strong ability to integrate the companies that the team acquires.
Spirit’s Managing Director, Geoff Neate said, “We approached Phoenix a few months ago and were impressed by its strong competency in providing managed IT and SAAS solutions to a customer base that is typical of Spirit’s target market. We now have a strong growing MSP IT product and customer portfolio and our team are already focused on integrating Phoenix and Arinda into a Spirit IT division.”
Phoenix Managing Director, Amelia Buchanan said, “We have been growing Phoenix since 2007 and have been approached by other potential acquirers. Once we understood the direction Spirit is headed and the growth opportunity that this delivers the Phoenix team, we became eager to be part of the journey. We were particularly impressed with the integration methodology that Spirit has created for MSP’s inside its operations. We have met a lot of the Spirit team and we are already working on realising the potential that the newly formed Spirit IT will deliver.”
