BT's small business division has ponied up an undisclosed sum to acquire another IT firm as part of its plan to drive unified communications downmarket.

It has bought Basilica Computing, an SME provider based in Hertfordshire. Basilica resells kit and software from Microsoft, Cisco, HP and VMware, among others.

It employs more than 200 people and recorded revenues of £76m at the end of August last year.

BT Business boss Bill Murphy said: "BT's strategy is to free up businesses to do what they do best – running their business. This acquisition will help us deliver that proposition to our customers and it will underpin BT's long-term growth in the unified communications sector."

BT has been throwing its money around buying up businesses with SME appeal over the last 18 months. Last year it snaffled up online tech flogger Dabs.com, and ISP PlusNet.

Last week it made a €60m cash offer to buy the mission critical infrastructures unit division of French IT services firm CS Communication and Systèmes.

Small businesses account for just over a quarter of BT Retail's revenues. ®

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