Version 1 makes second UK acquisition in three months

13 Jan 2014

Pictured from left: Rocela Group Commercial Director Kenneth Wilson, Version 1 Director Jarlath Dooley, Version 1 CEO Justin Keatinge and Rocela Group CEO Martin Mutch

Version 1, the Irish IT company that fosters ambitions of becoming a €1bn revenues per year service player within a decade, has made its second UK acquisition of the past three months: IT consultancy Rocela Group.

In November Version 1 acquired the UK business operations of Northern European IT services company Tieto Corporation.

Version 1’s total employee numbers now stand at 500 (100 UK employees) with forecasted FY2014 revenues of stg£52m (€62m)

Rocela Group employs 75 people in Edinburgh and Knutsford and last year brought in revenues of stg£14m.

The companyprovides enterprise application consultancy services to top global banks, many FTSE100 companies and pan-European utility organisations, as well as public sector and local government establishments in the UK.

“Version 1 and Rocela Group represents a great fit with high synergies in terms of growth and ambition, commitment to corporate values, staff engagement and customer satisfaction,” said Version 1’s chief executive Justin Keatinge.

“We expect this deal to benefit all our customers bringing consolidated expertise in Oracle & Microsoft Enterprise Application Consultancy and Licence Management and establishing us as the go-to IT service provider for Enterprise-scale organisations in Western Europe.”

Version 1 is a Silicon Republic Featured Employer, a selected top tech company that’s hiring now.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com