iomart Group Purchased Melbourne Server Hosting and Skymarket

iomart Group plc, an UK provider of cloud computing and managed hosting services, has purchased the Manchester hosting company Melbourne Server Hosting.

The acquisition, which was announced to the London Stock Exchange, includes Melbourne’s two data centres and offices on the Manchester Technopark, plus its nearby DR facility.

Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart Group plc, said: "This is an important acquisition for us as it gives us our first physical data centre presence in the North West of England. It increases iomart Group’s network of fully owned and managed UK data centres to seven and puts us firmly at the heart of the growing online and media business hub that Manchester has become."

Melbourne Server Hosting was founded by entrepreneur Daniel Keighron-Foster. It specialises in physical server hosting and has 30 employees. The company’s 600 customers include businesses such as global consumer goods group PZ Cussons, JJB Sports, satirical news website The Daily Mash as well as IT companies and design agencies across the North West of England.

It was also chosen to host the Jubilee Time Capsule, the digital vault being gifted to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her Diamond Jubilee. It has a cloud hosting brand called Serverlove.

Daniel Keighron-Foster, CEO of Melbourne Server Hosting, said: "I have spent over 10 years building a successful hosting company which prides itself on the personal service it gives to customers, which is something that iomart is also passionate about. I believe that Melbourne’s great local reputation and iomart Group’s established status as one of the UK’s leading hosting providers will be a powerful combination and I’m looking forward to this next stage."

Customers of Melbourne Server Hosting will benefit from the range of bespoke web hosting services, 24/7 technical support and high SLAs offered by iomart Group.

Angus MacSween continued: "We’ve been looking to gain a foothold in the Manchester area for some time and Melbourne provided us with the right opportunity. The fact that it already has a great reputation in the region and owns and manages its own data centres offered the perfect path for us to enter what is a very competitive regional market for top quality hosting."

iomart Group plc also announced that in July it bought Skymarket Limited, a web hosting business based in Surrey.

iomart Group plc is a provider of cloud computing and managed hosting services in the UK. Customers include Manchester-headquartered GMG Radio (part of Guardian Media Group), Shine TV, fashion retailer Reiss and London School of Economics. It owns and manages data centres in London, Maidenhead, Glasgow, Leicester and Nottingham.