Business phone company expands by buying new customer base

© Provided by Bournemouth Daily Echo 4Com's headquarters at Lansdowne Plaza, Bournemouth

A GROWING provider of company phone systems has bought the customer base of another operator.

Bournemouth-based 4Com announced it had acquired the business telecoms customers of Bluebell Cloud Solutions.

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The deal is 4Com’s third acquisition in the past nine months. Last year, it acquired both Midlands-based Midshire Business Systems (Communications) Ltd, known as Midshire Telecom, and Norwich-based Eastern Telephones Limited, known as Eastern Voice Data.

Unlike those deals, the Bluebell move sees 4Com acquiring only the business telecoms customer base, while Bluebell itself continues trading.

4Comn chief executive Gary Scutt said: “When Bluebell Cloud Solutions reached out to us, we were naturally keen to explore their proposal of acquiring their business telecoms customers to support our ongoing growth strategy.

“As this was our first acquisition where we’ve bought a customer base rather than an entire company, it was a new experience for us, and one which we’ve once again learned a lot from. We’re delighted to complete the deal with Bluebell and we look forward to building a strong relationship with our new customers.”

Ben Newbury, director at Bluebell, said: “4Com were very clear from the outset how the process worked, were honest in their approach and pulled no last-minute tricks on price, as so commonly seen in the industry.

“At Bluebell we wanted funding to expand the business further, so we needed an injection of capital. That’s where 4Com came in and purchased a large part of our customer base. The process was finished within six weeks of our initial contact.”

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Dean Cartledge, chief operating officer at Lansdowne-headquartered 4Com, said: “We are very pleased with how smoothly the acquisition process has gone. I would like to thank the whole team at Bluebell for their help in making it possible to complete this deal.

"Acquisitions always require a lot of hard work and patience and Bluebell, along with our superb 4Com team, have worked tirelessly to create a smooth transfer of customers.”

Mr Scutt added: “These are exciting times for all of us here at 4Com. Our core business continues to grow, and we will also be pursuing further acquisition opportunities within the telecom industry to compliment and further that growth.”