Firm owned by Apprentice star Baggs bought by Leeds company

Mr Baggs, who passed away in July, founded BlueWave Communications Ltd in the Isle of Man. The business has now been acquired by Leeds-firm aql.

The entrepreneur died following an asthma attack at his home in the Isle of Man.

He rose to fame following his appearance on the BBC One show The Apprentice.

Baggs, who was fired in the semi-final, became famous for his one-liners which included “Everything I touch turns to sold” and “I’m Stuart Baggs the brand”.

Mr Baggs had worked closely with aql as a customer and partner for many years and had deployed similar technology on the Isle of Man to that deployed by aql.

aql CEO Dr Adam Beaumont said “I’ve known Stuart for nearly a decade and I’ve seen his hard work and commitment build up a business with a great deal of respect and goodwill within the local community. These values are strong within aql and I felt that we wanted to make sure that the staff and customers of BlueWave would continue, along with the BlueWave brand. aql has now acquired BlueWave as a going concern.”.

BlueWave had just rolled out 4G broadband services which aql also intends to support.

“The company will continue to be managed locally by the same BlueWave team.

“For now, it’s about stabilisation – making sure we understand the systems, customers and building in resilience. Once we have developed a robust platform, we’ll continue BlueWave’s rollout across the Island, along with expansion into other service areas. The guys in Douglas now have a much bigger team behind them.

“Once we get the technical work done, we will also be establishing a discretionary fund from BlueWave profits to help budding entrepreneurs with small funds to explore their first idea or prototype.”