Perth IT firm in $15m east coast mega-merger

WA managed services company Empired has pounced on east coast business OBS for $15 million.

Publicly listed Empired announced the 100 percent acquisition to the ASX this morning. It will see OBS's 150 staff join Empired's 300-strong workforce.

The deal, which is part funded by equity capital raising, turns Empired into a true national player.

The $48 million-turnover company has its headquarters in Perth and an operation in Melbourne; OBS will add Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane to the geographic reach.

It is expected that Empired's roughly 40 staff in Melbourne will move in with OBS, which has its headquarters in the Victorian capital.

Empired managing director Russell Baskerville said: "OBS is a great business and we will be actively supporting the current leadership team in continuing to do what they do best.

"The addition of OBS is complementary to our prior acquisition of Conducive, which was an initiative to diversify into application development and consulting to complement our strong infrastructure managed services business.

"OBS adds extensive Microsoft development skills and a presence right across the east coast of Australia," Baskerville told CRN.

"They have some strong relationships with the Queensland state government and we'll use their resources to go after some larges managed services contracts."

The two companies bring complimentary expertise: Empired has a heavy emphasis on managed services and infrastructure, while OBS is focused on project work such as CRM and business intelligence.

OBS, which is expected to generate $32 million in revenue in the coming financial year, is one of the largest Microsoft Enterprise Content Management service providers in Australia.

The deal grows Empired's services capacity by 60 percent.

OBS managing director Andy Neumann told CRN that conversations started earlier this year. "It was Empired reaching out and seeing that OBS was good strategic fit for their growth plan."

Neumann said the company would retain its name, because Empired saw strength in the OBS brand as well as its alignment with Microsoft and as the winner of last year's BRW Best Places to Work.

It is expected that OBS will be renamed 'OBS, an Empired Company', the same approach taken with last year's $8 million Conducive buyout.

Empired also announced an estimated $50 million program of work with a global resources company.