Bulletproof to acquire Cloud House for NZ$5.2m

Cloud services provider Bulletproof has on Monday announced its intention to acquire the business assets of New Zealand-based Cloud House for NZ$1 million upfront, with a further NZ$4.2 million in cash and scrip to be paid upon meeting performance targets by June 30, 2017.

According to Bulletproof, the Cloud House acquisition brings with it approximately NZ$3.5 million annualised revenues, with approximately NZ$500,000 of current run-rate EBITDA.

With offices in both Wellington and Auckland, Cloud House is New Zealand's largest Amazon Web Services (AWS) advanced consulting partner. Bulletproof said the deal will cement them as the region's largest AWS partner.

"The end to end product offering made available to the New Zealand market from this deal is really going to disrupt the market," Cloud House CEO and co-founder Scott Judson said.

"The acquisition brings to New Zealand the first AWS Premier Partner, making us one of only eight top tier AWS partners in Asia Pacific. We have instant access to the Bulletproof market-leading managed services platform and many other resources we can leverage.

"And the cultural alignment between Bulletproof and Cloud House couldn't be better."

Additionally, as part of the acquisition, the owners of Cloud House will also transition to become part of the Bulletproof management team.

"We have been working with the outstanding team at Cloud House on a number of partnered opportunities for some time and we have always been impressed with the innovative, customer-focused capabilities of the CloudHouse team," Bulletproof CEO Anthony Woodward said.

"With great cultural alignment between the organisations already demonstrated, we believe the Cloud House team will feel at home within the wider Bulletproof Group and we're excited to welcome them aboard."

In September, Bulletproof acquired managed private cloud firm Infoplex for AU$3.55 million in an aim to boost its private cloud offering.

At the time of announcement, Bulletproof said Infoplex had annualised revenues of AU$6 million, with "maintainable" earnings of AU$1.4 million EBITDA annually. According to Bulletproof, once fully integrated, Infoplex is anticipated to generate in excess of AU$2 million EBITDA annually.

Bulletproof also acquired Sydney-based cloud consulting company Pantha Corp for AU$3.9 million in 2014.

Just over two years ago, Bulletproof found itself listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) via a reverse takeover of Western Australian-based mining company Spencer Resources.

"The opportunity in the Australian market, a lot of it is untapped from our perspective. We feel there's really a lot more to do in the Australian market that's worth pursuing and customers absolutely value, when you're talking about managed services of their critical data in the hands of an outside party, having that organisation on the ground in Australia," Woodward told ZDNet at the time.

"The listing lets us execute our longer-range strategy and we're also in a good position at the moment because of the opportunities in the rapidly growing cloud services market in Australia."

For the financial year ending June 30, 2015, Bulletproof reported net profit after tax -- which included the revaluation of performance shares -- of AU$4.4 million, up from the AU$3.1 million net loss in FY14.

For the full year EBITDA was AU$4.2 million, and revenue came in at AU$29.2 million, a 59 percent lift from the AU$18.3 million reported in FY14.

In the company's first quarter results, Bulletproof reported a net operating cash flow of AU$1.6 million, holding AU$6 million in cash at the end of September 2015.