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Babble cloud holdings doubles revenue with acquisition
London-based babble cloud holdings has acquired Birmingham-based Arden Group for an undisclosed sum.
The firm, whose travel clients include Secret Escapes, Attraction Tickets Direct, Park Plaza and Guoman Hotels, said the deal will ‘add strength in mobile and IT managed services to babble’s existing market-leadership in Unified Communication and cloud-based Contact Centre solutions’.
It will also double babble’s revenue to nearly £20 million and create a combined customer base of more than 1,200 customers.
Babble is backed by private equity firm LDC since October 2017 and bought Direct Response Plus, formerly part of the Yonder Digital Group, earlier this year.
Matt Parker, chief executive of babble, said: "It’s unusual to get a chance to double the size of a business with a single acquisition but with our purchase of Arden Group we have done exactly that. More importantly we’ve significantly strengthened our product portfolio, added real talent to the leadership and management teams and given ourselves a great footprint outside London with a team that has built a loyal and highly referenceable customer base.
"This feels more like a merger than an acquisition in that we are bringing two highly complementary businesses together and I am very excited about the future as one team."
Nigel Walker, Arden Group’s former managing director and majority owner, said: "The two organisations are an extremely good fit, our cultures are aligned, Arden’s product portfolio is entirely complementary, and I am confident knowing that our customers will continue to receive the standards of care and attention we have always delivered."
Alex Clark, investment director at LDC, and member of the babble cloud board,~added: "The acquisition of Arden Group will continue to strengthen babble’s core proposition, as well as extend the business’ span across the UK.
"Since partnering with Matt and the team, we have been actively looking to drive scale in what is a highly competitive market and this second acquisition in our first year of partnership forms part of a wider ongoing growth strategy as we look to build a business with longstanding value."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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