Claranet acquires Dutch Cloud Services Provider NovaData

Claranet has acquired Dutch cloud services provider NovaData, as part of its continued expansion across Western Europe, creating the largest cloud services provider to the mid-market in the region. The acquisition of NovaData, which has annual revenues of €7 million (£5.7 million), strengthens Claranet’s position as the leading provider of managed hosting and application management services in The Netherlands.

Founded in 2008 and located in Eindhoven, NovaData is an IT services firm focused on mid-sized and large businesses and institutions. With a range of services that broaden and complement Claranet’s existing portfolio, NovaData is a natural partner for Claranet. Customers in the region will benefit from the expertise of both companies and from a combined and expanded services portfolio. NovaData’s customer base comes from a wide range of industry sectors such as healthcare, business services and manufacturing.

A success story in the European technology market, Claranet has continued to grow from strength to strength since it was founded in 1996. Recently, the business has seen a period of rapid growth, with NovaData the latest in a wave of acquisitions made by the company over the last 18 months – with Star in the UK (November 2012), Typhon in France (December 2012), Echiron in Portugal (February 2014) and Grita in France (March 2014).

Charles Nasser, CEO of the Claranet Group, commented: “The acquisition is part of Claranet’s overall growth strategy, allowing us to expand our teams and our service offerings rapidly. NovaData is the third acquisition we’ve made in 2014 – which confirms our ambition to become the leading independent provider of managed services in Europe. Already a ‘leader’ in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for European Managed Hosting, the acquisition of Novadata strengthens our managed hosting and managed applications portfolio in The Netherlands.”

Ruud Joosten, Managing Director of Claranet Benelux BV, said: "We have been in discussion with NovaData about this acquisition for some time. By joining together two highly successful service providers that have collaborated together on several customer projects already, we expect our customers to benefit from our enlarged portfolios immediately."

“The combination of Claranet and NovaData, creates new opportunities for our customers, our partners and our employees,” said Bert Verhoeff, MD and founder of NovaData. “They will all benefit from Claranet’s pan-European operations, its strong financial footing, and an expanded services portfolio,” he added.

As a result of this latest acquisition, the Claranet Group will have annual revenues in excess of €160 million (£135 million), circa 800 employees, over 4,500 customers and operations in 6 European countries (France, UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal).