CodeBlue, New Zealand’s largest national IT services company serving the 30-300 seat market, has been acquired by CSG Limited, an Australian owned managed services company.
Terms of the deal has seen the ASX-listed company CSG sign an agreement to acquire CodeBlue for $5 million cash, and an additional $2.7 million in contingent cash payments and further earn out considerations capped at a total acquisition sum of $15 million.
CSG is a publicly listed technology as a service organisation which provides managed technology, print and cloud solutions sold as a service that target the small to medium enterprise but also scale to meet the needs of the larger enterprise.
At present, CSG has a broad footprint across Australia and New Zealand with offices in every capital city and a national service network supporting more than 15,000 customers across the Tasman.
In FY15 CSG reported revenues in excess of $A220million, a 13 percent increase on the previous year.
CSG has a well-established business in New Zealand and strong partnerships with tech giants such as Microsoft, Samsung, HP, Canon and Konica Minolta, while also announcing an partnership with 8x8 for cloud based unified communications.
“There is a natural fit between CodeBlue and CSG and the acquisition provides an attractive platform to support the CSG strategy in Australia and New Zealand,” says Julie-Ann Kerin, CEO, CSG.
Kerin says CodeBlue enhances CSG’s expertise in delivering IT support to small and medium enterprise customers.
For Kerin, it is proposed that CodeBlue will leverage its IT service desk and remote support and monitoring platform to provide the ongoing support service delivery unit for CSG technology customers across Australia and New Zealand.
“CodeBlue customers will also benefit from gaining access to CSG’s broad range of technology solutions,” Kerin adds.
From FY16, Kerin says that customers will be able to source print, unified communications, desktop, display, IT infrastructure, data storage and back up all as a service, supported by CodeBlue’s team.
“The way we go to market and support these solutions is the real differentiator for customers,” Kerin adds.
“The value proposition is that customers will be able to source multiple products and solutions from one partner, with one simple monthly bill and get access to the latest state-of-the-art technologies for minimal capital outlay.”
Serving mid-sized companies and organisations, CodeBlue has more than 160 staff work from offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Hawke’s Bay, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill.
“By becoming part of CSG, CodeBlue will be even better positioned to execute on its vision of providing enterprise-strength nationwide IT service and support to companies with up to around 300 seats,” adds Chris Mackay, CEO, CodeBlue.
“We will continue to develop CodeBlue’s sophisticated IT service desk and remote support and monitoring platform and to provide world class, high quality service to our customers.”
“We believe the new ownership structure and underpinning strategy will enable us to deliver even greater value to our customers through offering complementary solutions that can meet all of their technology needs.”
According to Kerin, CodeBlue’s management team has a “successful track record” of delivering IT managed services and migrating customers to cloud-based products, and will remain in place.
CodeBlue was founded in 2004 by current executive director Ken Davis, later joined by current CEO Mackay, a former CEO of Computerland.
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