Announcing the move, the CEO of BT’s Enterprise Gerry McQuade, said the deal would allow BT to “focus on investing in our core business”.
McQuade said: “With BT’s renewed focus on investing in our core business, the time is right for a new owner to maximise Tikit’s full potential.
“Our colleagues at Tikit have been a valued part of BT for the past seven years and I wish them every success for the future within Advanced. Today’s announcement is the next exciting chapter for Tikit, which is poised for further growth as part of Advanced given its extensive industry expertise and scale across enterprise software,” he added.
Advanced snapped up Tikit as part of an ongoing M&A spree, which has seen it acquire four other new businesses over the last 12 months. However, this is Advanced’s “first sizeable acquisition” since August 2019, when the Company received an investment from funds advised by BC Partners, with Vista Equity Partners continuing as an investor.
This latest acquisition is expected to give Advanced additional leverage across markets in North America, Australia and EMEA, while building on the firm’s presence in the SME and legal space. However, it comes only
“The professional services sector, in particular the legal market, is a strategic growth priority for us,” said Gordon Wilson, CEO of Advanced
“This acquisition will enhance our ability to provide innovative and specialist software solutions to meet clients’ needs – now and into the future. Tikit has a strong and growing customer base and is highly complementary to us, so we are thrilled to add its technology and people to the growing Advanced family,” he added.
Tikit is a global legal, accounting and professional services software business, headquartered in the UK with services focused on four “key business challenges” encountered by professional services firms: practice and case management; time and billing; document lifecycle; and marketing and business development.
BT purchased Tikit in 2012 for £64.2 million, enabling the provision of IT communications services to Tikit’s client base of more than 90 top law firms in the UK.
Last year, BT Group’s CEO Philip Jansen announced plans to sell more than £100 million in telecoms infrastructure in Holland, as he attempted to simplify the company.
