Integrator swoops after troubled e-tailer enters administration

Pan-European integrator SCC has acquired certain assets of online reseller IT247.com for an undisclosed sum after the Stockport-based e-tailer entered administration.

As revealed last week, a deal between SCC and the owners of IT247.com, Into Technology, was expected to be completed this month.

Matthew Dunham and Dermot Power of BDO Stoy Hayward were appointed as joint administrators of Into Technology, which traded as IT247, on 22 October.

A representative at BDO Stoy Hayward said that “certain assets of the company” had indeed been sold.

The assets include the employees, the goodwill and name of the business, the web site and the company’s procurement and distribution software, Intoscape.

A source close to the company said the e-tailer had gone under owing some “significant debts”.

Steve Willock, managing director of Into Technology, said he felt the acquisition of the assets of IT247 by SCC was the best thing for the employees and all other stakeholders.

“The people left at IT247 have been given a great chance to take the business forward in the way we had planned with the depth and reach that a large organisation like SCC can provide,” Willock added.

While SCC was unwilling to reveal its plans for IT247, a representative for SCC said: “We were not actually looking to make an acquisition, but when the opportunity arose we saw that it would be a great way to accelerate our capabilities in the online reseller space.”

Eddie Pacey, director of credit at distributor Bell Micro, agreed. “It is a great move for SCC,” he said. “It has picked up something that is already developed and working and takes it into a new area.”