Daisy Group demerges DWS after third party investment values unit at £1bn

Daisy
(Image credit: Daisy Group)

The Daisy Group will demerge its channel business Digital Wholesale Solutions (DWS) following an investment from private equity firm Inflexion.

Inflexion is said to have acquired a “significant” minority stake in DWS that values the business at £1 billion and the demerger is viewed as the final step in the division of the two companies.

Daisy combined its three channel units into a single vendor back in 2019, claiming the ability to operate at an arm’s length would give it the freedom to develop an independent strategy that would better serve its customers and encourage further growth.

Daisy Group DWS

DWS comprises the former Daisy Wholesale, Daisy Distribution (the firm’s mobile distribution operations) and Daisy Worldwide divisions, offering a range of IT, communications, and cloud products and services to more than 6,000 partners in the UK.

Its clients include major telcos like Vodafone, O2, BT-EE, TalkTalk Business and Virgin Media Business.

As part of the demerger, the majority of Daisy Group’s shareholders will reinvest directly into DWS while current CEO Terry O’Brien will retain his position, as will the existing management team.

 “The announcement today is brilliant news for DWS, brilliant news for our vendors and most importantly brilliant news for our partners,” said O’Brien. “From the get-go, it was clear that Inflexion shared our excitement about the UK channel community and the huge potential for growth as SME’s increase their investment in digital technology.

“I’m delighted that Inflexion is joining our team, where we are obsessed with building a great channel-only business, delivering great products and a great experience for partners through a great platform.”

Steve McCaskill is TechRadar Pro's resident mobile industry expert, covering all aspects of the UK and global news, from operators to service providers and everything in between. He is a former editor of Silicon UK and journalist with over a decade's experience in the technology industry, writing about technology, in particular, telecoms, mobile and sports tech, sports, video games and media.