The 10 Largest Solution Provider Mergers And Acquisitions Of 2018 (So Far)

Channel Wheeling And Dealing

The biggest channel acquisition of the first six months undoubtedly belongs to Synnex, whose $2.8 billion planned purchase of Convergys will turn the distributor into a market leader in the business process outsourcing space.

Whether it's adding a layer to existing services, which Tyler Technologies did when it bought Socrata to enhance data analytics for small government operations, or filling a gap in digital commerce capabilities, which Dimension Data did with its purchase of e2y, the first half of 2018 saw channel mergers of all sizes.

The deals involved some of the biggest names in the channel. And, based on what companies have said in the first six months of 2018, the rest of the year could be just as busy.

(For more on the biggest news of 2018, check out "CRN's Tech Midyear In Review.")

10. Dimension Data Buys e2y

Purchase Price: Not disclosed

Dimension Data acquired London-based solution provider e2y to fill a hole in its digital commerce portfolio, the company told CRN. e2y – which has a strong presence in the U.K. and Europe -- works in platform adoption and integration, and uses technology to enhance the user experience around digital commerce. The purchase adds a complementary set of skills to Dimension Data’s core business of systems integration, managed services and digital infrastructure consulting. Dimension Data -- a Johannesburg-based solution provider -- employs 28,000 people in 47 countries around the world, in consulting, technical support and fully managed IT services.

9. ConnectWise Buys HTG

Purchase Price: Not disclosed

MSP platform developer ConnectWise is looking to bring new coaching and peer group expertise to its 21,000-strong MSP community with the acquisition of Heartland Technology Group. ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini said the acquisition of Heartland Technology Group, better known as HTG, was an easy decision given that the two companies have had a strategic relationship since 2008 and that he and HTG CEO Arlin Sorensen have known each other since the late 1990s. HTG, Harlan, Iowa, is an organization that brings together 600 members from 500 MSPs, primarily in the U.S., through a series of meetings to provide them coaching and consulting services and the opportunity to form peer groups. Tampa, Fla.-based ConnectWise provides a platform through which MSPs can access and manage vendor services for their customers.

8. 10th Magnitude Buys Northwest Cadence

Purchase Price: Not disclosed

10th Magnitude, a solution provider specializing in Microsoft Azure hybrid cloud infrastructure, boosted its DevOps capabilities and its geographic reach with the acquisition of Northwest Cadence. The January acquisition by 10th Magnitude, a Chicago-based solution provider and Microsoft's 2017 Hybrid Cloud and Infrastructure Partner of the Year, of Bellevue, Wash.-based Northwest Cadence gives the company a huge step up in bringing Azure to business clients, 10th Magnitude founder and CEO Alex Brown said at the time the deal was announced. The kind of DevOps and data analysis expertise Northwest Cadence has developed is essential to helping customers with their digital transformation plans, Brown told CRN.

7. InterVision Buys Bluelock

Purchase Price: Not disclosed

In March, solution provider InterVision acquired one of its peers, Bluelock, in a move to make the latter's Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service capabilities part of its complete MSP offerings. InterVision acts both as a traditional solution provider as well as an MSP and a managed security services provider, and provides hosted data center services in its four data centers, said Bob Hollander, senior vice president of business development and marketing for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company. With Bluelock, InterVision gets a leading provider of DRaaS, Hollander said. Before the acquisition, InterVision offered its own DRaaS, which was modeled on the Bluelock service, Hollander said. He said that would make it easy to integrate Bluelock into InterVision's overall services offerings.

6. Kaseya Acquires Unitrends

Purchase Price: Not disclosed

Kaseya, a developer of IT management technology for managed service providers, found the storage vendor it was looking for with the acquisition of data protection technology provider Unitrends. Kaseya's acquisition of the Burlington, Mass.-based company is the culmination of a search for a good storage OEM partner that turned into an acquisition, Fred Voccola, CEO of Waltham, Mass.-based Kaseya, told CRN at the time of the purchase. Kaseya found the Unitrends technology to be the best in class, and used it as the base of a new product called Kaseya Unified Backup, he said. At the same, Unitrends expressed interest in integrating Kaseya's endpoint management technology. Combined, the two companies have over 1,000 employees and a $200 million revenue run rate.

5. Continuum Acquires Carvir

Purchase Price: Not disclosed

In June, managed services platform developer Continuum acquired Carvir, an MSP-focused developer of monitored and managed security. With the acquisition comes a major expansion of Continuum's security business, including an acceleration of its plan to add a U.S.-based security operations center and security information and event management (SIEM) tools to better improve its capabilities, the Boston-based company said in a statement. Carvir, a Cumming, Ga.-based provider of web gateway security, advanced endpoint protection and managed SIEM tools, brings Continuum about 580 MSP partners and more than 4,000 protected client sites, the company told CRN.

4. Presidio Acquires Red Sky Solutions

Purchase Price: Not disclosed

Presidio, a major nationwide solution provider, acquired Red Sky Solutions, a small solution provider with a focus on cybersecurity services, managed services, and data center and cloud solutions. Presidio CEO Bob Cagnazzi broke the news of the acquisition during the company's fiscal 2018 third-quarter financial conference call. He said the deal gives Presidio an enhanced presence in the Mountain states. Draper, Utah-based Red Sky Solutions focuses on cost-effective, security-forward IT strategy solutions, including consultation and implementation services centered on networking, storage, application delivery and virtualization.

3. Tyler Technologies Buys Socrata

Purchase Price: $150 million

Tyler bought Socrata, a Seattle-based venture-backed digital government solution provider, in April for a price tag of $150 million. That acquisition was funded through Tyler's existing cash balances. With the Socrata acquisition, Tyler clients in every public sector vertical, including justice, public safety, ERP/financial, and community development, will have the opportunity to make their data discoverable, usable and actionable. In addition, the Socrata deal opens the door to incorporate data from other jurisdictions to make analytics even more powerful and meaningful for government clients. Tyler saw an opportunity to use Socrata to add a data analytics component to its tool suite for small and midsize government clients.

2. Accenture Buys Certus

Purchase Price: Not disclosed

Accenture inked an agreement in May to acquire Certus Solutions in a deal that will boost the $35 billion systems integrator’s Oracle Cloud capabilities. The deal is one of more than 70 over the past three years as part of Accenture’s no-holds-barred cloud and digital transformation services offensive. This move provides even more services muscle for Accenture, which this year was listed as one of the Gartner Magic Quadrant leaders for Oracle Applications services alongside Wipro, Infosys and Deloitte. According to its LinkedIn profile, Certus says its has completed over 30 cloud projects in 100 countries and is the first dedicated Oracle Cloud support service and the first to tailor an Oracle Cloud solution for the public sector on G-Cloud.

1. Synnex Acquires Convergys

Purchase Price: $2.8 billion

Synnex's $2.8 billion blockbuster acquisition of call center operations leader Convergys instantly puts the distributor with its Concentrix division into a clear leadership position in the business process outsourcing market. The deal, in fact, represents a bold move by the distributor to dominate the BPO market with an additional $2.7 billion in BPO sales, a global BPO footprint with 12 new countries, 6,000 services professionals and new customers in key vertical markets. Once the deal is completed, Synnex will have a global BPO footprint of 40 countries servicing clients in 70 different languages.