Duke Street will take over full control of 2e2 from incumbent venture capital company Gresham Partners, which has backed 2e2 since its foundation in 2002.
There was widespread speculation in February that 2e2 had been put up for sale, with investment groups including PPM Capital and Phoenix Equity Partners reported to have shown an interest in the company. In May, 2e2’s director of business development, Nick Grossman, told Computer Business Review that a sale was very much on the cards. At some point, Gresham will look for a return on their investment, he said.
Newbury, UK-based 2e2 has grown rapidly in recent years, largely due to an aggressive acquisition strategy. The company completed three takeovers during 2005, including the offshore services arm of software vendor XKO and data storage and data security vendors TriSys and YUL Data Security. In January this year, 2e2 further boosted its data storage services offering with the purchase of Kingswell Data Management.
In 2005, 2e2 reported sales of 112.3m pounds ($212.0m), up 81% on the previous year. For the 12 months to December 2006, the company is expected to report revenue of approximately 155m pounds ($292.6m).
