IMAP has advised the shareholders of ARWINET GmbH and its spin-off KubeOps GmbH, two companies focusing on the growth areas of cloud services and Kubernetes, on their sale to Bechtle AG. The management will remain unchanged under the Bechtle umbrella and will continue to be led by the previous shareholder team of Susanne Schmidt and Andreas Stroppel. With this acquisition, Bechtle is significantly expanding its expertise in the field of Kubernetes.

ARWINET and KubeOps support companies in the implementation and operation of highly secure Kubernetes infrastructures, particularly in public and KRITIS-relevant (critical infrastructure) organizations. KubeOps is recognized as a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation in collaboration with the Linux Foundation. Bechtle and KubeOps are an excellent fit, particularly in the area of services for critical infrastructure (KRITIS) organizations. Additional growth potential lies in the scalable platform solution, which can be extended to other industries, as well as in gaining further market share in the cloud business and creating synergies in the public sector.

"We are convinced that the sale to Bechtle is the right step for our employees and customers, enabling us to further develop our companies in a larger, more stable environment. We look forward to the future with and at Bechtle and would like to thank the IMAP team for their professional preparation, advice and tireless efforts that made this promising merger possible," said Susanne Schmidt, shareholder and managing director of ARWINET and KubeOps.

Founded in 1983, Bechtle is one of the leading IT companies in Europe with more than 100 IT system houses and IT e-commerce companies in 14 countries. Headquartered in Neckarsulm, Germany, the group employs more than 15,000 people. With more than 70,000 customers from industry and trade, the public sector and the financial market, the company supports digital transformation and offers a comprehensive range of services for IT infrastructure and IT operations from a variety of manufacturers.

"With ARWINET and KubeOps, Bechtle is gaining excellent specialists with outstanding expertise in the emerging fields of cloud, Kubernetes and open source," said Dirk Müller-Niessner, CTO of Bechtle AG, who is responsible for both companies within the Bechtle Group.

The IMAP team exclusively advised the shareholders of ARWINET GmbH and KubeOps GmbH through all phases of a structured M&A process until the successful closing.