Private equity, Mergers and Acquisitions, MSP, Content, Unified communications

Macquarie Capital Acquires Cisco Partner Wavenet

Private equity firm Macquarie Capital has acquired Cisco Partner and British communications firm Wavenet from Beech Tree. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is technology M&A deal number 277 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2021. See all technology M&A deals for 2021 and 2020 listed here.

Wavenet is a Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Certified Partner with over 200 employees. The firm provides data, voice, security and technology services to more than 8,000 SME and enterprise customers.

Wavenet, backed by the previous Beech Tree investment, grew to over £60M (US$85.1 million) in 2021 compared to £14M (US$22.7 million) in 2016. Some of the growth involved acquisitions -- including deals to buy VIA, Townley and Qubic.

Macquarie Acquires Wavenet: Continued Growth

Bill Dawson, CEO, Wavenet
Bill Dawson, CEO, Wavenet
Paul Franks, managing partner, Beech Tree

In a prepared statement about the deal, Adam Joseph, head of private equity for Macquarie Capital Principal Finance Europe, said:

“We are delighted to partner with the Wavenet team and help them continue their strong growth trajectory. This investment provides us with a unique opportunity to deploy our flexible capital to grow a leading UK technology provider at a time when organisations across the country are looking for increasingly innovative technology solutions. We are looking forward to using our experience from growing other UK businesses to support the development of Wavenet both from an organic and acquisitive standpoint.”

Added Bill Dawson, CEO at Wavenet:

“I am extremely grateful for Beech Tree’s support and advice over the last five years, the team have been integral in empowering the expansion and development which has resulted in our fantastic growth. As a team, we are excited to continue to build on this growth as we enter our new partnership with Macquarie. I am confident that the passion and quality of our people, management and infrastructure combined with Macquarie’s experience will drive us to even greater success in the future.”

Concluded Paul Franks, managing partner at Beech Tree Private Equity:

“We are delighted to have worked with Bill and the management team at Wavenet over the past five years. The business has grown substantially – both in scale and capability, including eight strategic acquisitions. Wavenet is now one of the stand-out unified communications players in the UK market. I wish Macquarie and Wavenet every success for the future.”

About Macquarie Capital

Founded in 2009, Macquarie Capital is an Australian-based firm, though it has a history of technology-focused investments in the UK.

Macquarie Capital is the advisory, capital markets and principal investment arm of Macquarie Group, which itself recently acquired Australian data center provider AirTrunk for US$2.1 billion.