Tech consulting firms CSO Group and xAmplify agree merger
Australian consultancies CSO Group and xAmplify are merging to form what the partners describe as the country’s largest home-grown and locally-owned cyber security, AI and automation firm.
To be headquartered in Sydney and pulling in combined annual revenues in excess of $100 million, the new enterprise has yet to announce what its name will be going ahead, but say that the arrangement is “a true merger of equals”.
Based out of Canberra, xAmplify offers a range of services geared around AI and automation, while CSO primarily focuses on the cybersecurity market, with the latter the presumed target of the merger despite increased crowding.
“We see an enormous market and growth opportunity to disrupt and challenge the large global service providers,” said CSO founder and chief Michael Simkovic. “The integration of the two firms will create an amplifier effect, enabling us to deliver a new generation of innovative and integrated solutions with the convergence of cybersecurity, automation and AI technologies.”
Simkovic established CSO in Perth in 2017 after an earlier general manager stint at ASG Group, which is now part of NRI. xAmplify was founded one year later, with current CEO Wayne Gowland likewise having been as a general manager at ASG, bringing a background at Telstra and Unisys. Notably, he has also been a director at CSO Group since its inception.
“This merger will create a fully-integrated national business that will work across every state and territory, enabling clients to deliver greater innovation, efficiency, assurance, and business value,” Gowland stated. “The business and tech worlds are changing rapidly, and our customers want to transform and adopt the next generation of groundbreaking technologies in a safe and secure way.”
The new entity will combine to have a headcount of 160-plus across the country serving more than 100 existing public and private sector clients, including those in the energy, financial services, health, construction, and retail sectors among others, with the shareholders of each to become equal owners according to the reported terms of the deal once it clears in the back half of the year.
The merged business is however set to enter a crowded cyber market, with the claim of being Australia’s largest home-grown consultancy in the space perhaps a matter of semantics. One serious competitor for example, CyberCX, a roll-up backed by local private equity firm BGH Capital, states annual revenues pushing the $380 million mark.