All Covered Acquires Compuquip's Managed Services Unit

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. While All Covered will assume control of Compuquip's MSP unit, Compuquip will retain its security solutions business as well as subsidiaries Blue Wave Communications, which offers cabling installation, and BrightGauge Software, which offers custom reporting and customer portal tools for MSPs.

All Covered, a division of Konica Minolta Business Solutions, has made numerous MSP acquisitions in recent years to expand both its geographic footprint and its vertical expertise. Todd Croteau, president of All Covered, told CRN Compuquip was an attractive acquisition target because of its size and market-leading position as well as its ability to service Spanish-speaking clients in the region.

"We've looked at the Miami area very closely, and Compuquip was by far the largest MSP in the South Florida region," Croteau said. "We had a small presence in the area, but this move definitely expands our geographic coverage. And almost all employees are bilingual, so we're very excited to add them."

Eric Dosal, former president and CEO of Compuquip, said all 50 employees of the company's managed services unit, including himself, will join All Covered. Dosal added that being part of All Covered will help add scale to Compuquip's managed services operations and potentially expand All Covered's presence outside the U.S.

"I think there's definitely an opportunity to use this as a springboard to get into regions in Latin America and the Caribbean," he said. "We have a couple of clients in the Caribbean, and we have a lot of clients that are based in South or Central America and have branch offices here in the Miami area."

Along with potentially expanding into new geographies, Dosal said joining All Covered will help strengthen Compuquip's 24x7 help desk services as well as bring the company to new avenues such as cloud computing. "All Covered's cloud platform will be huge for us," he said. "Managed print services is a growing market in our region, so that will be huge, too."

Dosal didn't rule out the possibility of All Covered partnering with one or more of Compuquip's remaining businesses.

Compuquip marks the fifth major MSP acquisition for All Covered this year alone. Croteau said All Covered plans to make more acquisitions this year.

PUBLISHED AUG. 22, 2012