MTV Telecom Acquired by ScanSource in Major EU Telecoms Drive

Egham based distributor MTV Telecom has been acquired by US based distributor ScanSource. The deal, concluded late last Thursday for an undisclosed sum, will see one of the UK’s longest established distributors become a constituent part of the $2 billion Scan Source organisation and a platform from which the company can launch their telecommunications distribution ambitions throughout Europe.

ScanSource has three main distribution arms; bar code scanning and EPOS, electronic security and communications where, in the case of the latter, they are better known as Catalyst Telecom. The company is the largest distributor of Avaya SMB and Enterprise systems in the US as well as having distribution agreements with Polycom, Extreme Networks, Juniper and Plantronics.

Speaking exclusively to Comms Business Magazine, Mike Baur, President and CEO of ScanSource said, “We already have an extensive European operation headquartered in Brussells plus offices in Kingston-upon-Hull and Crawley as a result of previous acquisitions in the bar code sector – in all around 130 people.

We now want to establish a pan-European communications business similar to that we have built for bar coding products and MTV Telecom is the first step in that process.

It will be very much ‘business as usual’ at MTV Telecom; Martin Hatcher is remaining with the company and will be assisting them grow the business by introducing a number of our channel development tools already established and proven in the US.

The announcement this week that MTV Telecom has secured distribution rights for the Avaya mid market products is extremely well timed – in the US over 75% of our business is in the Enterprise.”

Former Chairman of MTV Telecom Martin Hatcher was extremely upbeat about the deal which initially began with contact between the two companies last year, “The timing is indeed perfect for our company as we begin the process of entering the mid-market with Avaya. The whole channel dynamic is perfect and with distributors increasing needing the deep resources that a company such as ScanSource possess we will now be better positioned than ever to deliver the type of service and value add that resellers need.”

Hatcher continued, “There will be no management changes at MTV Telecom and we will continue with considerable autonomy. My new brief is to significantly increase our UK footprint and take that model in to Europe.”

MTV Telecom Managing Director Natalie Foers concurred with the assessment adding, “We already have a great business but now have a lot more muscle behind us to move forward.

Resellers will note that we are now backed by a company that has the best technical resources in the world when it comes to Avaya Enterprise products which can only be a benefit to our channel partners.”