Softcat, a publicly traded British IT infrastructure reseller, agreed to acquire GDT, a Texas-based technology solutions provider, for an enterprise value of $1.05 billion, the companies announced, marking Softcat's largest deal to date and a significant bet on U.S. enterprise spending tied to artificial intelligence.
GDT specializes in data-center and networking services for enterprise customers across North America. Under the terms disclosed in Softcat's announcement, GDT will keep operating under its existing name as a wholly owned Softcat subsidiary, with its leadership team and workforce remaining in place. The deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.
Softcat is funding the purchase through a combination of cash on hand, new debt facilities and a planned equity placing of roughly £350 million, according to a regulatory filing to the London Stock Exchange, with J.P. Morgan Securities, Peel Hunt and BNP Paribas acting as joint bookrunners on the share sale. Softcat said it expects the acquisition to lift earnings per share by a mid-single-digit to low-double-digit percentage in its first full fiscal year post-closing, even after accounting for interest costs and dilution from the new shares.
Chasing AI-driven infrastructure budgets
The strategic logic, according to reporting from Finimize, centers on enterprise spending that has shifted toward AI-related networking, expanded data-center capacity and cybersecurity projects — categories that tend to involve larger budgets and longer, multi-year customer relationships than traditional hardware reselling. Softcat has built its UK and Ireland business largely on exactly that kind of recurring technology-procurement relationship, and executives have said customers have been asking the company to support their technology needs outside its home markets, particularly in North America.
Softcat's chief executive has said the company scouted around 100 potential U.S. acquisition targets before settling on GDT, according to trade press coverage of the deal, underscoring how deliberately the London-listed firm approached its first major American purchase. Softcat simultaneously raised its underlying operating profit outlook for its current fiscal year to high-teens percentage growth, a signal that the core UK business remains healthy even as it takes on new acquisition debt.
Investors will be watching whether GDT's profits and integration synergies are enough to offset the financial drag of the new borrowing and the larger share count from the equity raise — a dynamic Softcat itself flagged in its trading update. The deal still requires customary regulatory clearance in both the U.S. and U.K. before it can close.
