Advania

Advania AB

Industry	Information technology
Founded	Reykjavík, Iceland (December 1, 1939 (1939-12-01))
Headquarters	Stockholm, Sweden
Number of locations	30+ offices in 11 countries (2022)
Area served	Northern Europe
Key people	Hege Støre, CEO Lilja B. Skúladóttir, CFO Henrik Foyn-Laukvik, Head of M&A Tomas Wanselius, CEO Advania Sweden Ægir Már Þórisson, CEO Advania Iceland Geoff Kneen, CEO Advania UK Espen Hartz, CEO Advania Norway Atte Kekkonen, CEO Advania Finland
Services	Managed services[ vague ] IT infrastructure and integration Business solutions[ vague ] Professional solutions[ vague ] Communication centers MarketPlace[ vague ] Data center services
Operating income	15.4 billion ISK (2019)
Owner	Goldman Sachs and a Group of Swedish, Icelandic and Danish investors, led by Gestur G. Gestsson, chairman of the Board of Directors
Number of employees	4,200+ Total 1,324 in Sweden 826 in Norway 627 UK 622 in Iceland 341 Finland 319 South Africa 49 Sri Lanka 47 Denmark 39 Serbia 8 USA and Canada
Website	advania.com (in English) advania.se (in Swedish) advania.is (in Icelandic) advania.no (in Norwegian) advania.fi (in Finnish) advania.co.uk (in English)

Advania is a Nordic information technology service corporation headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. ^[1] The company is the largest in its field in Iceland and the 9th largest in the Nordic countries. ^[2] Advania has corporate clients in the public and private sector. It provides a range of IT-services, platforms, cloud services, and support to multinational enterprises, governments, and businesses.

History

Advania has roots in three Nordic countries: Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Over a long period of time each country generated a component of what eventually was braided into one company, Advania AB, in 2012.

EJS branch

In 1939 the Icelandic entrepreneur Einar J. Skúlason founded EJS, an office equipment repair workshop in Reykjavik. He soon expanded his business, opened a store and started importing products like office machinery and cash registers. During World War II the company also repaired guns and lighters. EJS eventually became a dominant IT business in Iceland. In 1952 the Icelandic government and the city of Reykjavik founded Skýrr, an IT company whose purpose was to take a leading role in computing and recordkeeping in Iceland. The company was privatized in 1995 and later became an important element in a group of companies – including EJS – that merged under the Skýrr brand.

Swedish branch

In 1971, the IT company Nokia Elektronic AB – later renamed Datapoint Svenska AB – was founded in Sweden. The company sold Datapoint computer terminals but later became a network company and a system integrator in Sweden. In 2003 Datapoint merged with Virtus AB, an IT-company which was founded in 1994. The new company was named Kerfi AB.

Norwegian branch

In 1991, Merkantildata Applikasjon was founded in Norway, originally as a business unit within Merkantildata (later ATEA). The company focused on implementing ERP solutions in the Nordic market, industry solutions for retail, property management, logistics, legal, and transport and waste management. In 2000 the company changed its name to Hands and was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. In 2005 Hands was unlisted, as it was acquired by the Icelandic company Kögun which later merged with Skýrr. Despite changes in ownership, Hands managed to acquire Nett.2.3 and Completo in 2005.

In 2012, Advania AB was born, when Skýrr, Kerfi and Hands merged.^{[ citation needed ]} Since then four companies have been acquired and merged with Advania, the listed Swedish IT company Caperio included.

Advania Finland

In 2019, the Finnish IT and digital service provider Vintor became Advania Finland. Accountor ICT became part of Advania in 2020 and in 2021 Beveric joined as well. In 2022 Valtti Kumppanit was acquired by Advania.

Goldman Sachs majority acquisition

In February 2021, it was announced a Goldman Sachs merchant banking division had acquired a majority share of Advania. They became the owner by at least 51%. The new owners expressed their aim to further accelerate Advania's growth both organically and through acquisitions. ^[3]

On August 10, 2021, Advania acquired Visolit ^[4] from IK Partners ^[5] , who reinvested in the combined group through the IK IX Fund as a minority shareholder.

Advania UK

In December 2021, Advania acquired ^[6] UK-based IT services company Content+Cloud, a full Solutions Partner for Microsoft Cloud with offices across the UK as well as South Africa and the US.

In November 2023 Content+Cloud ^[7] , along with some of its subsidiary brands^{[ citation needed ]} Perspective Risk, Sol-Tec and Azzure IT, rebranded as Advania in the UK.

Advania UK continues to operate with additional subsidiary brands and businesses including Mirus IT ^[8] , Sipcom ^[9] , Fresh Intranet ^[10] and recently acquired IT reseller Servium ^[11] .

References

1. "Sameinast undir heitinu Advania" [Merge under the name Advania]. Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). Reykjavík, Iceland: Árvakur. 20 January 2012.
2. "Partnership between Advania and Iceland's oldest beverage producer". cision.com. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
3. "Goldman Sachs funds to acquire a majority stake in Advania".
4. Brombach, Harald (2021-08-10). "Visolit kjøpes opp for å danne en nordisk kjempe". Digi.no. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
5. "Advania | Private Equity Investment I Mid Cap". IK Partners. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
6. Jonsvik, Eva-Lotta (9 Dec 2021). "Advania acquires the UK based cloud specialist Content+Cloud". advania.com. Retrieved 5 Sep 2024.
7. "Rebranded Advania helps Microsoft's goal of reaching 1 million UK AI workers". Advania UK. 14 November 2023. Retrieved 5 Sep 2024.
8. "Mirus Homepage". Mirus IT Solutions. Retrieved 5 Sep 2024.
9. "Sipcom Homepage". Sip Communications, Ltd. Retrieved 5 Sep 2024.
10. "Fresh Homepage" . Retrieved 5 Sep 2024.
11. "Servium Homepage" . Retrieved 5 Sep 2024.