3. Focus Group swaps PE backers
Revenues of acquired company: £214m
Month announced: April
Rationale
The largest of three secondary private-equity buyouts in this rundown, Focus Group in April unveiled Hg as its new owner.
By valuing it at nearly £800m, the deal made the Shoreham-by-Sea-based business comms and IT provider a unicorn.
The investment meant Focus would have a “much larger war chest than we had before”, Focus Group co-founder Ralph Gilbert told IT Channel Oxygen at the time of the deal.
What happened next?
While most of its private equity-backed peers took a break from M&A 2024, Focus Group’s acquisition spree went into overdrive.
It announced 11 deals in 2024 (four before the Hg takeover, and seven after), making it arguably the sector’s most acquisitive firm last year.
This week, it unveiled a new CEO and Chairman in the shape of former Computacenter bigwig Neil Hall and industry stalwart Peter Sweetbaum, respectively.
See next page for 2 bigger deals…
