Daisy founder Matthew Riley says his merger with Virgin Media O2 鈥榖lows any previous deals out of the water鈥�.
Riley, who appeared as a judge in the early days of TV鈥檚 The Apprentice, isn鈥檛 known for making wild claims but told 老九品茶Cloud 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 老九品茶, will be its CEO, once it has secured regulatory approval.
Daisy-Virgin Media O2 B2B deal creates 拢1.4bn revenue company
The serial entrepreneur, who founded Daisy 24 years ago from a small desk in his garage, told 老九品茶Cloud it was the fifth or sixth time he鈥檇 tried to get the deal done.
鈥淚’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,鈥� he told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淚 thought it was an opportunity. So as ever, being an entrepreneur, I just asked the questions, 鈥榳ould you sell it?鈥� 鈥榃ould you want to merge?鈥� 鈥業s it something we can do together?鈥�
鈥淚’ve probably asked five or six times over the last 10 years and I asked again, and this time they said yes.鈥�
The 51-year-old praised the hard of work of his team in Lancashire in getting the deal done.
He continued: 鈥淚 think it’s testament to the people who live and work in and around Lancashire, especially David McGinn (CEO of Daisy Communications).
鈥淲e鈥檝e 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.
鈥淵ou 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.
鈥淲e’ve always done really, really well in registration and in keeping staff as well 鈥� that鈥檚 important.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 get stature in Lancashire in the same way that you would in places where it鈥檚 a lot more transient, like London, for instance.
鈥淏ut we鈥檝e got, for example, a lot of sisters, aunties, uncles and cousins who all work together and that kind of togetherness is really important.鈥�
Riley also stated his intent on staying based in Nelson.
鈥淭his is the hub of the business,鈥� he explained. 鈥淭his will play a big part when the joint venture comes together because we鈥檝e got a lot of skills and knowledgeable people that can really help drive and grow the business as we move forward.
鈥淚t’s an opportunity for us. The VMO2 business was sort of sat underneath their consumer business, which is an absolute monster.
鈥淚t’s a huge, huge business of 16,000 people. It鈥檚 a really big business in the UK.
鈥淏ut 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.
鈥淲ith 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.鈥�
Riley, who has also fully funded a business farming kelp in Scotland, expressed his excitement on working with Bertram.
He said: 鈥淛o was actually a customer of ours so I鈥檝e known her for a number of years.
鈥淪he鈥檚 great and we have a similar culture. She’s got a really good work ethic.
鈥淚’m confident that she can help lead the business in the way that I want to see that strategy delivered.
鈥淚’m going to set the strategy and she’s going to deliver it. That’s the plan.鈥�
At the outset, both businesses will operate under their separate brands from their current office bases.
Riley, who was included in 老九品茶Cloud鈥檚 2024 Northern Leaders list, said he has no intention of slowing down.
鈥淚 guess I’ve got that entrepreneurial spirit where I’m always doing things, and I quite enjoy work,鈥� he admitted.
鈥淏eing honest, I don’t find it a burden. I really, really enjoy it. It’s a bit like a hobby if anything
鈥淚’m just really energetic and always doing stuff, so it’s par for the course.
鈥淣ow, 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.鈥�