FusionStorm Acquires TDR, Looks To Three Other Acquisitions Soon

the latest in a wave of consolidations hitting the channel

John Varel, CEO of San Francisco-based FusionStorm, said Monday that his company has acquired Technology Deployment Research.

San Francisco-based TDR, founded three years ago, focuses on the storage space, and includes EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, Network Appliance and Symantec on its vendor list. Varel estimated the acquisition of TDR will increase FusionStorm's storage business by about 25 percent.

TDR brings FusionStorm a strong sales and engineering team, along with a list of customers including Apple and Sony International, Varel said. It was on-track to have revenue of about $20 million this year, and is "very profitable," he said.

TDR had one other attraction to FusionStorm, Varel said. "It's only a half-block away from us," he said. "So the team packed up their laptops and walked to our office to start."

David Gottesman, founder and CEO of TDR, is not joining FusionStorm. Instead, he has signed on to a six-month consulting contract with FusionStorm, and will then form a new company focusing on small business VPNs, Varel said.

FusionStorm, which has a very active acquisition strategy, currently has three letters of intent to acquire other solution providers, which Varel said he hopes to close early next year, including an application development and hosting firm, a government professional services firm, and a maintenance and asset management firm.

FusionStorm has been on a shopping spree in the past couple years. The company in October acquired Jeskell, a large IBM government solution provider. It also acquired a number of services-oriented solution providers.