An Ottawa company that provides cloud-based phone and internet services to businesses has acquired a Toronto-based competitor with the aim of expanding its footprint in the lucrative southern Ontario market.
BluArc announced Thursday it has finalized a deal to buy Toronto’s About Communications, marking the Ottawa firm’s first acquisition. Terms of the transaction were not released.
“This entire scenario is to garner even more market share in the Toronto area,” said Scott Williams, the CEO of EyeVero Marketing Communications Group and a spokesman for bluArc.
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Williams said the two sides had been discussing a potential deal “for a while” and began serious negotiations earlier this year. The agreement became official in early June.
BluArc, which launched its first product in 2006, employs more than 30 people and has thousands of subscribers across the country. Its clients range from major law firms to the Canada Science and Technology Museum.
Williams said the acquisition is part of a strategic plan to accelerate growth at the company, which provides phone, teleconferencing, internet and other telecommunications services over private, secure networks.
Among bluArc’s innovations was the introduction two years ago of a service called MobileConnect 2.0, which enables customers to mimic the functionality of desktop phones on mobile devices through features such as extensions, group calls, auto attendants and having direct, inward dialling numbers.
At the time MobileConnect was unveiled, bluArc officials said the company had about 15,000 subscribers, adding they expected that number to double by 2018.
