Business ISP and IT supplier Daisy Group will put itself up for sale as early as March, according to the Financial Times.
Reports last year suggested the company would stage an initial public offering and re-float on the stock exchange.
Daisy was founded in 2001 by Chairman Matthew Riley and was publicly listed until 2014 following an investor buyout worth £500 million. However these plans could have shelved in favour of finding a buyer in a deal that could be worth as much as £1 billion.
Takeover
The company declined to comment on the reports, but the suggestion is that Daisy wants to grow to better compete with the likes of BT in the SMB market. Potential suitors are unclear, but Vodafone and Virgin Media’s parent company Liberty Global have been touted by the FT.
Vodafone bought Cable & Wireless for £1 billion in 2012, while Virgin Media Business targets the SMB market.
Daisy has made 50 acquisitions during its lifetime and can trace its roots back to Pipex, one of the first commercial ISPs in the UK.
It originally offered communications services, such as voice calls, hosting and broadband, but like the rest of the industry, it has looked beyond traditional revenue sources for growth.
It offers a range of IT services, including cloud, unified communications and security, and has a significant channel business.
Most recently it was named as a supplier for the Gigabit Voucher Scheme, a government initiative which gives SMBs up to £3,000 to upgrade their business connectivity.
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