Datatec acquires Biodata

Datatec, the international ICT group has announced that it has acquired niche South African security specialists Biodata IT SA, with the intention of merging the business into Westcon SA’s security division.

The acquisition forms part of the group’s strategy to grow its South African networking, convergence, security and mobility distribution business. The inclusion of Biodata’s strong vendor portfolio and its existing reseller and customer base to the Westcon security portfolio will significantly bolster the company’s security offerings.

‚To date there has been a void in our security portfolio for our resellers, which we believe the incorporation of the focussed Biodata security vendor suite will now fill,‚ says Jacques Malherbe, CEO of Westcon SA. ‚In addition Biodata was particularly appealing to Westcon because of its clean distribution model, where it works only with its resellers and does in no way approach the customer directly, mirroring that of our own model.‚

As per the acquisition, Biodata will be merged into the Westcon SA business’s security portfolio and managing director of Biodata, Jan de Lange, will assume the role of managing director of Westcon Security. The business unit will emulate the existing Westcon business model and will be managed as an autonomous business within the group portfolio.

‚Merging with Westcon will enable us to offer our existing resellers and their customers an enhanced product range and access to a wider skills set and portfolio offering, allowing them to better meet their security and compliance needs,‚ says Jan de Lange, managing director of Biodata. ‚Our customers will now also be able to take advantage of Westcon’s strong BEE credentials and be able to draw from the experiences and references of a larger customer base.

‚The acquisition comes at a time when we are seeing growing demand amongst our customers for solutions that will enable them to more effectively meet, reach and exceed their security needs with particular reference to the ECT Act, the impending Personal Protection of Information Act as well as the governance laws within King III,‚ adds de Lange.

According to Malherbe the Biodata business will not be restructured in any way, all existing skills will be incorporated into the business and there will be no shedding of staff.

‚Biodata is a highly profitable going concern that fits in perfectly with our business, there is nothing we need to rebuild and once we have coordinated our product and resellers we will hit the ground running from day one,‚ states Malherbe.

‚As a result of the current economic turnaround in the market, the management of Westcon are optimistic with regards to the business prospects availing themselves in the market. Should we see synergies and value from these prospects we will not hesitate to pursue an expansion trail, such as we have with Biodata,‚ ends Malherbe.