Telstra acquires channel partner MSC Mobility

Pictured above: Nicholas Falloon, Justin Roche and Zoe Gibbs

Telstra has acquired enterprise mobility management provider and its own channel partner MSC Mobility.

MSC is one of the biggest mobile device management companies in Australia, with around 80,000 end users as of July 2015. MSC is also one of Telstra's largest enterprise mobility partners, managing devices for a "large number" of the telco's enterprise customers.

Telstra did not disclose the value of the deal.

MSC employs approximately 100 staff in its Sydney headquarters and Melbourne office. The company placed No.25 in the 2014 CRN Fast50 and No.29 in 2015, growing 44.31 percent to reach $14.9 million in revenue.

It was also named as the 2015 enterprise mobility managed service provider of the year by research firm Frost and Sullivan.

The company's core capability is its enterprise mobility platform built around Airwatch and MobileIron. The platform has already been rolled out to "a number of law enforcement agencies in Australia.", according to the telco.

Telstra global products executive director Michelle Bendschneider said MSC would be key in its global enterprise and services focus on enterprise mobility.

“This acquisition is an investment capturing the fastest growing segment of the enterprise mobility market: managing the supply of apps, content and mobile services to enterprises. To achieve our growth aspirations in enterprise mobility, we need to develop our customer relationships from a holistic mobility view, rather than just what sits on their device or tablet," she said.

Bendschneider added that MSC's platform could be expanded to host and support services in Asia, Europe and the US.

MSC managing director Leuk Andersen said: "This is a great fit for our people and we are really excited by the opportunity to be part of Telstra's strategic plan. Together we’ll have powerful capabilities in device and mobile applications management, security, IoT, machine-to-machine and asset tracking."

The deal is Telstra's second blockbuster acquisition in as many weeks, after it acquired award-winning Microsoft partner Readify earlier this month. Telstra also acquired another Microsoft partner, Kloud, in January for $40 million.