M & A Rainmaker

Peter MacLean, Chairman of Fox IT Holdings Limited ( well, Chairman when he wants to be and anonymous when he doesn’t ) has delayed the winding up of Fox IT Holdings in order to let the Directors of Fox IT Limited do a Management Buy Out ( MBO ) of Fox IT Limited.  ( see the full Press Release from Fox IT Limited below ). Quite clearly MacLean and Fox IT Management Team Andrew Gray, Mike Darkens and Ashley Bassett have been deep in discussion about how best to extract Fox IT Limited out of a company that MacLean seems determined to put into administration.

This is really interesting ( if it was not so sad !! ). One assumes that Gray, Darkens and Bassett have been running a profitable company ( else why would they want to buy it ?? ) so this means that Fox IT Holdings Limited, which had no creditors – because they were all paid off when LMS Capital plc bought out most of the companies from 365iT plc – has now had a cash injection from the Directors of Fox IT Limited from the MBO. Yet – we understand – it is still to be put into administration ( if it has not already been – as we understand that is now the case ). Perhaps MacLean has taken even more money out of the company to go with the ” repayment of his loan ” that occurred when LMS Capital bought out most of 365iT’s companies ???? Maybe he has taken a consultancy fee for negotiating the sale of Fox IT Limited to it’s Management team ??

The phones have been hot today with people calling about this latest development so more soon !!

Fox IT: Management Buy-Out

Fox IT Limited, the leading independent UK based IT Service Management specialists, has

been the subject of a full and exclusive management buyout with effect from 24th August,

2012. The current management team of Andrew Gray (Finance Director), Mike Darkens

(Consulting Director) and Ashley Bassett (Sales Director) have purchased in full the shares

from the parent company, Fox IT Holdings Limited (formerly 365iT Plc.) and will form the

new board and operational directorship of the business. The acquisition retains all current

operational and delivery UK based staff as well as its global partner network covering 25

countries and 125 accredited Service Management consultants.

Since 1981, Fox IT, formerly Ultracomp, has assisted over 500 organisations and 200000

individuals on their journey to transform IT Services in order to deliver greater business

value through accredited training reinforced with assessment and implementation tools and

services. This management buyout facilitates a strengthening of Fox IT’s core business

focus and portfolio in supporting organisations through all phases of their continual service

improvement journey.

Ashley Bassett commented “I believe this is great news for our Clients, employees and the

ITSM Industry. We’re genuinely excited and confident that the buyout provides the

opportunity for Fox IT to continue being the partner of choice for Service Improvement and

transformation programs. Since its involvement in the inception of ITIL® and ISO/IEC

20000, Fox IT has continually been at the forefront in establishing, the advancement and the

practical application of Service Management best practice through thought leadership,

content provision and service delivery. Whilst continuing to support organisations with their

core training needs a key focus and challenge for the new Board of Directors is to provide

our Clients with practical education, guidance and tools to accelerate the translation of their

significant training investment into tangible business benefits.

The Fox IT brand has already seen a shift from being purely a world leading ITSM training

company to one of supporting our Clients’ service improvement programs providing

consulting and resourcing services, process development tools, bespoke training offerings

and strategic mentoring and guidance for maintaining service quality. Therefore, Fox IT is

well positioned to meet this change in demand. Part of our new mission is to raise the

profile of ITSM to meet and deliver business objectives”

Mike Darkens added “The success of the business is based on the core attributes of our

people, their experience and energy. This has led to the positive results we have delivered

consistently to our clients and through adding to our strong relationships, we can continue

the current trend of business growth.”

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