Even as the managed services market grows, consolidation among platform providers, MSPs and vendors continues to accelerate. Keep track of merger and acquisition (M&A) information, company valuations and key alliances isn’t easy. That’s why we launched the MSPmentor M&A Tracker. Here, you’ll find the latest M&A information, including links to acquiring companies’ Web sites.
The pace of mergers and acquisitions in the managed services market seems to be accelerating. Our MSPmentor M&A Tracker now lists 10 such deals this year — and we suspect there are dozens more that we’ve yet to hear about.
Give our MSPmentor M&A Tracker a look and please let us know if there are any deals we’ve overlooked or should add to the list. You can alert us by posting a comment below or by emailing MSPmentor Editorial Director Joe Panettieri (joe [at] ninelivesmediainc.com).
Admittedly, some deals listed on the M&A Tracker aren’t pure MSP acquisitions, but each deal did have a managed services component attached to it.
Vertical market solutions providers are opening their wallets to acquire managed service providers. The latest example: PHNS, a solution provider to the healthcare vertical, has purchased AmeriVault — which specializes in online data backup and recovery services.
This is the 10th MSP-centric buyout we’ve spotted this year, and the second this week. Here’s some analysis of the PHNS-AmeriVault deal, and the fast-evolving MSP acquisition market.
Jeff Kaplan, a SaaS and managed services thought leader at Think IT Services, has some pretty strong opinions about Hewlett-Packard’s buyout of Electronic Data Systems.
I think Jeff and I are on the same page. HP gains new scale and little overlap by acquiring EDS. On Tuesday I pointed out that EDS doesn’t do much — if anything — for HP’s SaaS and managed services efforts.
But Jeff uses far more direct language when describing HP’s SaaS and managed services shortcomings so far.
It’s a question I get asked all the time: How much is a managed service provider (MSP) business worth, and what metrics should MSPs use to set their company valuations?
I still don’t have an exact answer for readers, but here are some clues based on anecdotal info I’ve gathered plus Hewlett-Packard’s buyout of Electronic Data Systems (EDS). Read More >
Call it a technology paradox: Even as the managed services market grows rapidly, it also consolidates through mergers and acquisitions. The latest such deal involves two Cisco Systems partners — ePlus and Network Architects — getting together to better target commercial customers.
If Hewlett-Packard buys Electronic Data Systems, as The Wall Street Journal is speculating, it could mean good news for managed service providers.
Think about it for a minute: Dell has already moved into the managed services market. And Microsoft is sizing up the MSP space. Likewise, Hewlett-Packard could be developing software or buying platform providers to better manage the company’s own servers and desktops — especially in small and midsize businesses.
But an EDS buyout could distract HP for years to come, leaving MSPs plenty of opportunity to manage small and midsize businesses that deploy HP gear.
Mergers and acquisitions continue at a rapid pace in the managed services industry. The latest deal involves Alentus — a managed service provider with software as a service expertise — acquiring two Linux-centric hosting firms.
Based in Laguna Niguel, Calif., Alentus snapped up Austin, Texas-based Website Source, Inc. and SpeedFox, Inc., which specialize in Linux website hosting. The acquisitions reinforce the growing popularity of hosting both open source and closed source applications under one roof.
Alentus’s acquisitions are the latest in a growing list of MSP buyouts followed by our MSPmentor M&A Tracker.
As managed service providers continue to acquire one another, readers have been asking me about MSP valuations. Are buyout prices based on specific financial multiples? Are MSPs valued based on a multiple of revenue, gross profits, net income, something else? Read More >
