Managed service providers have flooded me with email in recent days. Dozens of MSPs wanted more information about Sparxent, a start-up company in Salt Lake City, Utah, that’s acquiring MSPs and solutions providers across the globe.
But the notes got me thinking: If you’re so eager to sell, chances are Sparxent and other buyers won’t want to acquire you. Here’s why.
Sparxent, a start-up company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is seeking to acquire managed service providers and VARs that generate roughly $5 million to $20 million in annual revenues.
The company, backed by vSpring Capital, today disclosed that it has acquired NetworkD Corp. of Newport Beach, California. Sparxent has also signed a letter of intent to acquire Arbyte of Moscow.
The VAR Guy spoke with Sparxent co-founder David R. Taylor to learn more about the company’s ongoing acquisition strategy. Here are some highlights from the conversation. Read More >
This just in from MSPmentor’s sister site, The VAR Guy: A start-up company, currently working in stealth mode, intends to acquire multiple VARs, integrators and managed service providers. Total combined revenues for the acquired companies will be about $100 million to $120 million.
Alas, our resident blogger can’t share more details until August 25. But he can say this: The start-up sounds well-funded and has a seasoned management team that has previously built at least one major software company. Complete details on August 25. Until then, mum’s the word.
Managed service providers remain in a buying mood, and continue to gobble each other up. And now, private equity investors are joining the action. The latest three examples: Key Methods purchased Enterprise Systems Inc.; Evolve IP acquired Lyrio IP Technology Solutions; and Wachovia Capital Partners has snapped up HostMySite in a private equity deal.
The HostMySite deal is particularly interesting, since Wachovia Capital Partners’ parent is in financial turmoil at the moment. You can follow these and other deals by reading our MSPmentor M&A Tracker, which has spotted more than a dozen managed services-related acquisitions this year.
Here’s a bit more on each of the three latest deals:
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.
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.
mindSHIFT, a managed service provider, is pushing deeper into the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market. The company has acquired Collaboration Online, which specializes in hosted Microsoft applications.
This is the latest example of managed services converging with SaaS, and it reinforces many of the prime MSP opportunities we’ve been writing about in recent weeks — particularly hosted SharePoint, Dynamics and Exchange services.
It’s also the latest example of mergers and acquisitions within the MSP sector. (See our M&A Tracker for a list of deals.)
Here’s a bit more on mindSHIFT’s plans for Collaboration Online.
