Daisy founder Matthew Riley says his merger with Virgin Media O2 ‘blows any previous deals out of the water’.
Riley, who appeared as a judge in the early days of TV’s The Apprentice, isn’t known for making wild claims but told BusinessCloud that this deal is a game-changer.
Under the terms of the deal Virgin Media O2 and Daisy Group will merge their complementary direct B2B operations and will be second behind only BT in the UK telecommunications market in terms of size.
Riley will chair the new company while Jo Bertram, managing director of Virgin Media O2 Business, will be its CEO, once it has secured regulatory approval.
Daisy-Virgin Media O2 B2B deal creates £1.4bn revenue company
The serial entrepreneur, who founded Daisy 24 years ago from a small desk in his garage, told BusinessCloud it was the fifth or sixth time he’d tried to get the deal done.
“I’ve always admired the fact that they’ve (Virgin Media O2) got so many customers and I think it’s a little bit of a sleeping giant,” he told BusinessCloud.
“I thought it was an opportunity. So as ever, being an entrepreneur, I just asked the questions, ‘would you sell it?’ ‘Would you want to merge?’ ‘Is it something we can do together?’
“I’ve probably asked five or six times over the last 10 years and I asked again, and this time they said yes.”
The 51-year-old praised the hard of work of his team in Lancashire in getting the deal done.
He continued: “I think it’s testament to the people who live and work in and around Lancashire, especially David McGinn (CEO of Daisy Communications).
“We’ve always been really lucky to get great people who come and work with us and I’m a great believer in, if you can build, you don’t have to have the knowledge, you can learn it.
“You can come in with no tech knowledge and within a year, you can get trained up and get some new skills and develop. I think that’s really important.
“We’ve always done really, really well in registration and in keeping staff as well – that’s important.
“You don’t get stature in Lancashire in the same way that you would in places where it’s a lot more transient, like London, for instance.
“But we’ve got, for example, a lot of sisters, aunties, uncles and cousins who all work together and that kind of togetherness is really important.”
Riley also stated his intent on staying based in Nelson.
“This is the hub of the business,” he explained. “This will play a big part when the joint venture comes together because we’ve got a lot of skills and knowledgeable people that can really help drive and grow the business as we move forward.
“It’s an opportunity for us. The VMO2 business was sort of sat underneath their consumer business, which is an absolute monster.
“It’s a huge, huge business of 16,000 people. It’s a really big business in the UK.
“But I think the business that was sitting within it was generating less than 10 per cent of the revenue and even less in terms of profit, so I think it can allow us to be able to take their customers, of which they’ve got about 500,000, and give them light and air to let them grow with us.
“With the capabilities that we’ve got within Daisy, we can cross sell and upsell some of the new technologies that we’ve got and let it flourish as a business, rather than it being almost hidden under that umbrella of the VMO2 banner.”
Riley, who has also fully funded a business farming kelp in Scotland, expressed his excitement on working with Bertram.
He said: “Jo was actually a customer of ours so I’ve known her for a number of years.
“She’s great and we have a similar culture. She’s got a really good work ethic.
“I’m confident that she can help lead the business in the way that I want to see that strategy delivered.
“I’m going to set the strategy and she’s going to deliver it. That’s the plan.”
At the outset, both businesses will operate under their separate brands from their current office bases.
Riley, who was included in BusinessCloud’s 2024 Northern Leaders list, said he has no intention of slowing down.
“I guess I’ve got that entrepreneurial spirit where I’m always doing things, and I quite enjoy work,” he admitted.
“Being honest, I don’t find it a burden. I really, really enjoy it. It’s a bit like a hobby if anything
“I’m just really energetic and always doing stuff, so it’s par for the course.
“Now, this is a really big deal. It’s significant and we’ve been working on it for quite some time, but that won’t stop me being entrepreneurial and doing more things.”