ePlus Buys Most of Manchester Technologies

Herndon, Va.-based EPlus, a $249.1 million company, made the move because it expands its customer base and geographic presence with offices in the New York area, South Florida and Baltimore. It also expands its services teams and gives it a new customer base for its enterprise cost-management solutions.

In addition, ePlus acquired the assets of a Manchester division, Manchester Software, based in Rochester, N.Y., which offers enterprise-software development and operations consulting. "This acquisition gives us an established presence in key new markets and adds valuable customer relationships," says Phillip G. Norton, chairman, president and CEO of ePlus. "At the same time, it gives us access to this customer base to offer ePlus software and services as a solution for their electronic-procurement, content-management and asset-management needs."

Manchester will be holding on to the balance of inventory and all accounts receivable. It will also continue to work on its Electrograph operations, which sells display technology.

"We are extremely pleased with the agreement that we have reached with ePlus," says Barry R. Steinberg, Manchester's chairman and CEO. "The sale to ePlus of our IT product and service business will enable us to focus our resources on our Electrograph operations...we believe this market will continue to grow in the years to come. "We thank our many IT customers for their years of loyalty to our company, and we are confident that ePlus will provide them with the same high level of service that they have come to expect from Manchester."