Every time I write about IDOX it seems to have further broadened its company description. Its latest press release – which announces the acquisition of grant advisory firm Currency Connect Holdings BV – uses the strap line “leading independent supplier of software and services”. Now, that really doesn’t tell us that much about IDOX. And it is a far cry from how we would have described the business a couple of years ago i.e. as a provider of land & property systems and services to the UK local government market. The now all-encompassing description of IDOX’s business highlights how its slew of acquisitions has led extensive diversification – into adjacent private sector markets, internationally and further into a range of managed services. When IDOX was struggling to grow its core UK local government software business, its acquisition strategy, allowed it to keep on growing (see Diversification allows IDOX to keep on growing). Despite now returning to organic growth (see IDOX making progress organically) IDOX is showing no signs of stopping its buying spree.
Today’s acquisition of Dutch-based Currency Connect expands its footprint as a grants information provider. The business, which is being acquired for a total consideration Eur4.7m (£3.8m), is a 34-employee, Eur2.7m (£2.2m) revenue, grant advisory business, which helps clients obtain funding for innovation projects through grant-based subsidies and R&D tax credits. It also offers grant management software and advises on related process change. IDOX states it is “already the leading grants information provider in both the UK and Netherlands”; that position is a result of its acquisition of Grantfinder (see IDOX’s Grantfinder acquisition cleared) completed in September 2010. Indeed like other acquisitiosn that IDOX has made over the years, the acquisition makes sense because it has a clear relationship to an existing business. But as the acquisitions have come thick and fast the diversification has been rapid. On more than one occasion we have compared IDOX to Capita due to its apparent ability to make earnings enhancing acquisitions – often in adjacent markets - and successfully integrate them into the business. IDOX, though, has embarked on international expansion far more quickly.