Academia has ended its four-year wait for an acquisition, with its MD declaring “there will be more to come”.
The Apple-focused reseller has purchased £9m-revenue MSP Smartdesc in a move that extends its footprint into the Microsoft and Cisco space.
Academia owner Andrew Harman in February admitted “frustration” at its failure to tie down the kind of strategic acquisition needed to fulfil the ambitions he set out when he bought the firm in 2020. He estimated he had spoken to 25 firms, without reaching a deal.
“We’ve walked away from some [acquisition targets],” MD Mark McCormack told IT Channel Oxygen following today’s acquisition of Smartdesc, a London-based MSP that serves the non-profit sector.
“We got really close to signing one but felt it wasn’t the right mix. Smartdesc is the right mix.”
Scale acquisition could come “very soon”
Since Harman invested in it through his Strive Capital vehicle, higher education-focused Academia has diluted Apple and Jamf from being 75%-80% to 50% of sales.
80-employee Smardesc will help diversify the business further, McCormack said, noting that it also has nearshore helpdesk resources in Greece and Spain.
“We’re really excited about this, because it brings us a lot of inhouse skills we didn’t have, particularly on the Windows piece. It brings things like Intune and cyber. It’s opened a lot of doors for us,” he explained.
“This [acquisition] definitely isn’t about scale. This is about expertise. But I think there could be a scale acquisition at Academia very soon.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
