Beech Tree Private Equity backed Wavenet has acquired Solar Communications Group for an undisclosed sum, significantly boosting its capabilities and presence in the UC market. The deal adds on-premise engineering skills to Wavenet and accreditations in SD WAN and UC services. The group will now service nearly 10,000 UK business customers.

The deal comes soon after Wavenet refinanced its banking facilities and raised a £75m acquisition war chest.

Both companies have pursued a buy-and-build strategy, each acquiring four businesses and integrating them over the past two years. 

Solar is a Mitel Platinum Partner, a Microsoft Silver Partner and  a Summit Partner of Silver Peak.

"The combination of Wavenet and Solar brings the benefits of scale, broader geographic reach, a stronger management team and significant enhancements to the portfolio of services and solutions the group can now offer customers," stated Wavenet CEO Bill Dawson.

 Wavenet operates its own automated platform that provides cloud-based communication services to direct customers and resellers. 

The company has a particular specialism in Cisco’s BroadCloud solutions supported by a broad range of connectivity, security, cloud, voice and data solutions which it supplies on its own managed network. 

“Solar has been successful developing the platform, people and services required for growing the business both organically and by acquisition," added Dawson. 

"This has accelerated its transition to a fully managed cloud service provider."

Solar Communications CEO John Whitty will remain with the business and join the executive board.

He stated: “Following an intensive 30 months of growing our business the time is right to take the next step and allow our customers to benefit from our joint capability and experience in the UC market.”

Solar Communications was established in 1988 and has offices in Chippenham, Cardiff, Harlow and Manchester and employs around 100 people. 

Wavenet has offices in Solihull, Warrington and Norfolk and also employs 100 staff.

Source commsdealer