EPlus Expands New England Presence With VantiCore Acquisition

VAR 500 power ePlus on Monday said it had acquired VantiCore, a Bedford, N.H.-based solution provider and UC and contact center specialist with a significant managed services footprint.

Financial terms weren't provided. The move broadens Herndon, Va.-based ePlus' footprint in New England as well as adds to its UC, data center and managed services practices, with a specific emphasis on Cisco solutions, ePlus said. VantiCore is a Cisco Premier partner, and ePlus is a Cisco Gold partner with Master specializations in security, UC and managed services.

"We're pleased to welcome VantiCore to ePlus and solidify our presence in New England, with one of the largest engineering teams serving the region," said Phillip Norton, ePlus chairman, president and CEO, in a statement. "By combining our joint expertise, ePlus is strategically positioned to provide the highest level of service to customers in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts."

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Vince Eugene, CEO of VantiCore, added that his team looked forward to joining ePlus' and that an expanded portfolio would allow ePlus to attack opportunities in cloud, data center, storage, desktop virtualization, security and videoconferencing.

EPlus, ranked No. 37 on CRN's 2011 VAR500 list, has been an active acquirer of fellow channel companies in recent years, including its pickups of security player NCC Networks in June 2011 and video collaboration VAR Interchange in November 2010.

Its VantiCore buy is only the latest in a series of acquisitions among VARs with substantial UC, collaboration and data center practices, especially in the Cisco and Avaya channels. Presidio, for example, recently closed its acquisition of INX; Strategic Products & Services bought fellow Avaya powerhouse Imagine Technologies in December, and Softchoice acquired Unis Lumin in November, merging two of Canada's top VARs and two Cisco Gold partners.