SP500 Acquisition: Vology Scoops Up Govplace's California Location

Solution Provider 500 company Vology has acquired the Irvine, Calif.-based division of federal government-focused solution provider Govplace, the companies said Monday.

Financial terms of the deal, which closed in late March, were not disclosed.

According to Vology, a $170 million solution provider based in Oldsmar, Fla. and No. 159 on CRN's 2013 Solution Provider 500 list, acquiring Govplace's Irvine office is part of a broader, three-year growth strategy, aimed at expanding its footprint geographically and within select vertical markets, such as the federal, state and local government.

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"We have an organic and acquisitive growth strategy in front of us," said Dave Rich, vice president of digital marketing at Vology. "And part of that key growth strategy is really to dominate storage, networking and virtualization in the state of Florida and then to aggressively grow other strategic markets in the industry, one of which is the California or west coast market."

Rich said the acquisition will also bulk up Vology's professional and managed services arm. "Not only did it fit our growth strategy to penetrate that market, [but] it will enhance our services delivery, specifically around enterprise storage platforms and our overall managed services capabilities," he told CRN.

The Irvine office of Govplace, a Reston, Virginia-based solution provider and No. 149 on the 2013 SP500, will now operate under the Vology brand, Rich said. The Govplace Irvine office has 12 employees, bringing Vology's total employee count to about 210, and will be Vology's second California location after Sacramento.

Vology's acquisition of Govplace's Irvine location comes just more than a year after it snapped up fellow Tampa-area solution provider Bayshore, which, at the time, ranked No. 364 on the SP500. That move, Rich said, was also meant to put more muscle behind Vology's professional services division.

Vology holds major partnerships and certifications in networking, security and infrastructure, including with Cisco, Juniper, Brocade, Dell SonicWall and Palo Alto Networks. In addition to its spot on the SP500, Vology in 2013 was ranked No. 143 on CRN's Tech Elite 250, a list comprised of North American solution providers who have the highest level and most certifications from major IT vendors including Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and VMware.

In addition to its Oldsmar headquarters and two California locations, Vology has offices in Syracuse, New York City, Denver, Austin and Oklahoma City.

PUBLISHED APRIL 1, 2014