Hamburg-headquartered system integrator (SI) Xantaro Group has acquired fellow-German firm Nicos AG (stylised ‘nicos’) for an undisclosed fee, at once expanding its enterprise division and managed services portfolio, and handing it control of a service and security operations centre (SOC) with international reach. It also gives it an SI partnership with Cisco Systems. The deal follows Xantaro Group’s acquisition of Munich-based IT security specialist NetDescribe in August (2024). It is part of a strategic “expansion course”, the firm said.
Nicos AG, founded 25 years ago, is headquartered in Münster in Westphalia, and employs around 200 people across five businesses. These are: Nicos AG, itself, which specialises in the design, delivery, and management of “data networks”; Woyn (‘woyn’) in the Philippines and Nicos in Australia, offering cybersecurity support to its central SOC in Münster; and Nicos Cyber Defence GmbH, which serves medium-sized enterprises; and Germany-based 42clue GmbH, an enterprise software developer in the “areas of machine learning and AI”.
Nicos claims to operate around 4,300 “network solutions” at about 2,200 customer sites worldwide; it targets “globally active medium-sized companies”, said Xantaro Group, and counts the likes of food company Dr. Oetker, electric motor manufacturer ebm-papst, state-owned state-owned development bank KfW, automotive construction firm Mubea, and machine tool maker EMAG; all of these are Germany-based. As well as Cisco Systems, Nicos has partnerships with US-based Fortinet and Israel-based Cato Networks; Xantaro has existing deals with both security firms.
Xantaro Group, with a major footprint in the DACH region and also the UK, is pushing hard on managed security services. Its deal for NetDescribe in August elevates its service offering in the way of “security in complex IT infrastructures”, it said. A statement at the time explained: “The aim is to expand the portfolio for carriers, service providers, data centres, and industrial customers in Germany and the UK – which has now been extended to include security services for NOC, SOC and OT security.” Nicos and NetDescribe will retain their brands, appended as ‘members’ of the Xantato Group.
Xantaro Group – with 300-odd customers, and 190 staff at offices also in Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg, and London – has a complementary interest in the provision of private 4G and 5G networks for Industry 4.0, as well, via deals with Nokia and Celona. It told RCR Wireless last month, following a new deal with US-based private 5G firm Celona: “Xantaro’s strategy is to focus on industries that obviously benefit from 5G… which cannot be covered with traditional wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi. We address logistics companies… [and] shipyards [for example].”
Gerold Arheilger, chief executive at Xantaro Group, said: “The integration of [Nicos strengthens our] managed services portfolio and… position in the… enterprise market… The partnership between Nicos and Cisco significantly expands our bandwidth. We will combine the competencies of Nicos with the knowhow of Xantaro and NetDescribe, offering customers added value in areas of network and security automation, private wireless solutions, and AI-based platform and managed services. The acquisition is the next milestone [to strengthen] Xantaro with leading providers.”
Axel Metzger, chief executive at Nicos AG, said: “During discussions with Xantaro, both sides identified numerous opportunities… to create unique added-value for our respective customers and [to] convince new customers of our future portfolio. Customers… appreciate… that Nicos takes full responsibility for their network and security infrastructure: from migration, configuration and operation, to dispatching and managing local providers…. With Xantaro, they now also have access to hardware consulting and procurement, security automation… and private wireless.”
