Capita says bye-bye to Updata bigwigs: Been good slurping you Crapita Capita IT Services is bidding farewell to the boss of acquired broadband network service provider Updata as it slaps the operation together with the exiting Network Managed Services (NMS) division. Surrey-based Updata was acquired for a tasty £80m on April's Fools Day. The exit of Richard Bennett, who was at the helm …
I have witnessed a few acquisitions over the last 15 years or so and the biggest mistakes acquirers make is replacing the senior management so soon after acquisition. Clearly they have their own guys waiting in the wings, but 8 weeks - that in my view is far too quick. I know Updata and know Richard - both former directors of Updata set the values that Updata - in my view at least - differentiated itself on from the plethora of other network operators in the public sector space. From a customer perspective, cost is always an absolute driver for tender award, but call it naivety if you will, customers still need to like to do business with you, some success is still personality driven. With the senior management gone, what is Updata's/Capita's personality now? I fear it will have none and they will just become another one of the many vanilla network companies out there today. The remaining brand equity Updata has in the market will diminish as quickly as Capita's promise to keep it.
That's pretty much Crapita's raison d'etre. Take something of value, borg it, and toss the drained husk away.
Crapita is basically a vampire - sucking all the goodness out of its acquisitions with no long term benefit to anyone - just getting a temporary prop to its balance sheet and underneath is just a withered husk itself.
Where's Buffy when you need her?
When you look at the £82m price tag, some might think it high price for 'Crapita' (who was first to coin that? Probably The Reg, right?) to pay. But when you consider the joint SWAN win - what are we talking £100m plus? A massive percentage of that was going to Updata, so in reality, Updata has cost Crapita something, but not a lot as they are acquiring the Updata's percentage of the SWAN contract. Obvious, I know, but good business on Crapita's part.
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