Stone wins Rock bidding war

Public sector specialist bolsters notebook portfolio with purchase of struggling system builder

Public sector IT supplier Stone Group has emerged as the new owner of Rock after winning the bidding war for the struggling system builder.

Stone will pay an undisclosed sum the trade and assets of the Warwick-based notebook specialist, which went into administration two weeks ago (CRN Online, 9 May).

David Langton, joint administrator at accountancy firm Deloitte & Touche, confirmed last week to CRN that there were several interested parties in the firm.

Rock’s former chief executive Nick Boardman will join Stone as director of its mobile technology division.

Stone said the acquisition would enable it to offer a wider range of specialist high-end notebooks to its public sector customers and pledged to fully back the Rock brand going forward.

James Bird, chief executive of Stone, said: “This acquisition is great news for Stone and for our customers, because we can now offer a much wider portfolio of laptops.
“By acquiring Rock Computers, Stone has the opportunity to leverage our existing IT manufacturing skills and support resources to develop more specialist Notebook products to meet the demands of some specific verticals in our public sector customer base.”