Johannesburg, 13 Mar 2012
Esquire Technologies, which recently won the African Distributor of the Year Award at the 'EMEA Channel Academy: 2012 Awards', has announced it has acquired a 50% stake in leading ISP, SA Gateway, for an undisclosed amount.
The deal, effective 1 March, sees the management of SA Gateway staff retaining a 50% shareholding, with Esquire owning the remaining 50%.
Asgar Mahomed, managing director of Esquire Technologies, said the purchase is in line with the company's ongoing Internet strategy - and to be in a position to offer its 12 000 active resellers “very competitive” rates for “Internet-based communications”.
He said that, through the purchase of SA Gateway, Esquire can effectively offer wholesale rates to its clients, including its 12 000 active resellers - the biggest reseller base in the South African ICT industry.
“SA Gateway is now able to leverage off Esquire's 12 000 reseller base, which will make the company a major player in the ISP market space - and will enable Esquire to gain a strategic edge by being able to streamline communications costs for its resellers.”
He said the purchase of a 50% stake in SA Gateway also forms part of its strategy to grow its Virtual Reseller Network (VRN). The VRN - a world first in the ICT industry - will ultimately link its 12 000 resellers, a move that turns the traditional reseller model on its head.
“The VRN solution has effectively turned participating resellers into multimillionaires overnight, as the resellers will have virtual access to the entire Esquire stock holding, which is updated directly to the reseller's Web site at regular intervals - often as frequently as every three minutes.
“The software solution, run by e-commerce specialist ImproWEB - with whom we have an exclusive agreement - takes our stockholding and replicates it on the Web sites of participating resellers, thereby giving them virtual access to our entire stockholding.”
Mahomed confirmed that Esquire Technologies has, to date, spent R8 million on development costs for its VRN solution.
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