MSPmentor

Now that Best Buy (BBY) has completed the mindSHIFT acquisition, let’s take a much closer look at the financial aspects of the managed services and cloud services acquisition. MSPmentor has gathered some hard-to-find financial metrics about mindSHIFT’s business. Examine the numbers and you may get a better feel for managed services provider (MSP) and cloud services provider (CSP) valuations.

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The managed services provider (MSP) market is starting 2012 much in the way it started 2011: With plenty of MSP merger and acquisition activity. We’re tracking all of the M&A deals on MSPmentor’s MSP Merger and Acquisition page. As of this writing, four M&A deals involving MSPs have either been announced or completed since the New Year. What’s driving the M&A activity?

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Best Buy’s acquisition of mindSHIFT is now complete, and mindSHIFT is now “officially a 100% owned subsidiary of Best Buy,” according to mindSHIFT CEO Paul Chisholm. So should customers — and rival managed services providers — expect big changes over at mindSHIFT? The simple answer is no. I believe mindSHIFT has a clear long-term plan for cloud services and managed services, while Best Buy has its hands full trying to bolster its traditional retail business. Here’s the background.

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I’m nearly ready to go disappear for the New Year weekend. But I had promised MSPmentor’s readers a look at the most read managed services stories of 2011. We’ve already disclosed the 10 most read MSP news stories from Q1, Q2 and Q3 2011. Now let’s look at the most read MSP stories from Q4 2011 and the reasons managed services providers read along.

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I’m a little late with this weekly managed services blog because of family commitments — a good excuse this time of year. Happy Holidays to all of our readers. Now, here are seven managed services blogs and MSP news tips that the MSPmentor team didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending Dec. 23, 2011.

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Roughly 1,600 resellers, VARs, MSPs and channel influencers are on hand for the ConnectWise IT Nation conference in Orlando. The conference has pushed far beyond traditional managed services discussions. In fact, here are eight discussions and trends that surfaced during the initial Exhibit Hall and Keynote gatherings at ConnectWise IT Nation.

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mindSHIFT, which today was acquired by Best Buy for $167 million, will accelerate its existing business strategy and remain in the market for potential managed services acquisitions, according to mindSHIFT CEO Paul Chisholm. During a phone call a few minutes ago, Chisholm (pictured) offered MSPmentor deeper insights about the Best Buy-mindSHIFT deal. Also, some quick math from MSPmentor suggests Best Buy paid about 10 times to 12 times earnings for mindSHIFT, though our math could be slightly off the mark…

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The mindSHIFT executive team, in an apparent email to customers, described Best Buy’s $167 million buyout of mindSHIFT, and the potential synergies from the deal. The memo confirms that mindSHIFT had been seeking “a new investor” for several months. MSPmentor has not directly confirmed the memo’s authenticity. But generally speaking, it looks like the real deal to me. Here’s the memo…

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When Best Buy announced plans to acquire mindSHIFT Technologies today, the $167 million deal raised numerous questions about the managed services and cloud services markets. Here are the top nine questions MSPmentor will be exploring in the hours and days ahead.

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Best Buy is acquiring mindSHIFT Technologies, one of the top managed services providers in the SMB market, for $167 million. The Best Buy-mindSHIFT deal ends a major chapter in the managed services market — and begins a new one as well. Updated, 9:12 a.m. ET, Nov. 7: Here’s a closer look at the potential implications of Best Buy purchasing mindSHIFT.

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The times they are a changing. Our fourth-annual MSPmentor 250 list is set to debut the week of August 1. The MSPmentor 250 will help you to rapidly build a Rolodex containing managed services experts, entrepreneurs and executive names. But there are big changes to this year’s MSPmentor 250. In fact, here are eight well-known industry names who didn’t make this year’s edition…

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Much of the managed services market spent this week at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 (WPC11) in Los Angeles. But there was plenty of managed services news elsewhere. In fact, here are seven managed services blog entries MSPmentor didn’t have time to write for the week ending July 15, 2011.

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During an interview at mindSHIFT‘s Long Island offices yesterday, CEO Paul Chisholm revealed his top priorities for the rest of 2011. More managed services acquisitions? More cloud marketing? Instead of guessing simply read on for a recap of my conversation with Chisholm.

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Paul Chisholm, CEO of mindSHIFT (an MSPmentor 100 and Talkin’ Cloud 50 company), is sharing some secrets to managed services success; merger and acquisition valuation points; and growth strategies during Schnizzfest, a TruMethods conference held today in Philadelphia, Pa. TruMethods CEO Gary Pica just wrapped up an on-stage interview of Chisholm (pictured), who addressed roughly 150 managed services providers. Here’s the recap.

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During Ingram Micro Cloud Summit last week, a few MSPs pulled me aside to ask a key question: Is Intermedia, the hosted Exchange specialist, still committed to managed services providers (MSPs) and channel partners? The question popped up because Oak Hill Capital Partners, an investment firm, acquired Intermedia in May 2011. The change in control has some MSPs wondering how Intermedia will evolve. Here’s the answer.

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A strategic MSP-related conference is set to start later this week (June 9-11, Philadelphia, Pa.). But there’s no mention of managed services in the conference name. And you’ve got to work closely with TruMethods, an MSP-centric consulting firm, to get your foot in the door. The event’s name: Schnizzfest. Here’s what to expect.

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Microholdings US has acquired ConnectIT Networks Inc., a managed services provider in Canada. We’ve reached out to Microholdings US and ConnectIT Networks for additional comment about the deal. In the meantime, here’s what we know so far.

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For the fourth time in recent days, a managed services provider has been acquired. And this appears to be the biggest deal yet: Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. has acquired All Covered, a national IT service provider with 350 employees. The deal, completed in December 2010, was announced today. Here are the details, including insights from All Covered President Todd Croteau and Konica Minolta COO Rick Taylor. Plus, thoughts on how Konica Minolta will attempt to balance is channel partner program and All Covered ownership.

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I have a confession. I was a little depressed on Monday, January 3. The news cycle was a little slow and it seemed like the managed services market was trying to wake up from a holiday hangover. (I despise slow news days.) And then: Boom. Lots of managed services news and surprises that, quite frankly, I didn’t expect. We’re only five (and a half) days into the New Year. But here are the biggest managed services surprises I’ve seen so far.

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When mindSHIFT acquired Alpheon (an MSP focused on health care) earlier today, I picked up the phone and dialed Mike Jones, CEO of ETG — another MSP focused on the health care vertical. I asked the obvious question: Has mindSHIFT also approached ETG about a potential buyout as part of a deeper health care push?

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Why did mindSHIFT acquire Alpheon, and will mindSHIFT make more managed services acquisitions this year? I posed both questions (and a few others) to mindSHIFT CEO Paul Chisholm (pictured) a few minutes ago. Here are Chisholm’s replies.

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Vormittag Associates Inc., known as VAI, ranks among the latest enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors to pursue software-as-a-service (SaaS) options for customers. MSPmentor noted the pattern in mid-2009, citing moves from SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, and SunGard. But VAI’s move also involves mindSHIFT, the fast-growing managed services provider. Here are the details.

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What a week for managed services mergers and acquisitions. Covad, Megapath and SpeakEasy are rolling up to form a national voice and data service provider. PC Mall is buying Network Services Plus Inc., a 73-person MSP. All Covered is dialing MSPs up and down the U.S. East Coast to see if they’d like to be acquired. And ETG, a health care MSP, is receiving unsolicited inquiries about its business. All this confirmed and potential M&A activity makes me wonder: Can small MSPs continue to go it alone?

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