12 M&A Deals Reshaping The Channel: January 2017

Security, New Technology Competencies Spur January Acquisitions

January was a big month for acquisitions in cutting-edge technology areas, with four of the month's 12 acquisitions focused on boosting organizational capabilities in cloud, analytics and Internet of Things.

Security was another big focus for January acquisitions with two companies purchasing security service providers as security becomes an increasingly important piece of solution provider arsenals.

Six of January's acquiring organizations are companies in CRN's SP500 list and acquired companies were spread out geographically across the U.S. and Europe, as more companies set their sights on European expansion.

The acquisitions are ordered on the following slides based on the total number of employees at the acquired companies.

PCM

Company acquired: Stratiform

Head count: 11-50 employees

Annual revenue: $4.1 million

Purchase price: $1.56 million

Date of announcement: Jan. 3

PCM boosted it's capabilities around Azure, Office 365 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite by acquiring Microsoft Gold partner Stratiform.

El Segundo, Calif.-based PCM, No. 28 on the CRN Solution Provider 500 list, paid $1.56 million for the Calgary, Alberta-based company, adding that over the next three years, PCM will be eligible for a $1.3 million earn-out.

Sirius Computer Solutions

Company acquired: Continuum Worldwide

Head count: 11-50 employees

Annual revenue: undisclosed

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 4

Sirius Computer Solutions acquired fellow solution provider Continuum Worldwide, boosting its security and Splunk capabilities to meet the quickly expanding demands of customers.

The acquisition comes less than a year after Sirius' acquisition of another security-focused solution provider, Force 3, and makes sense given that Sirius had partnered with Continuum several times on other security-related projects, according to Joe Mertens, president and CEO of San Antonio, Tex.-based Sirius, No. 27 on the CRN Solution Provider 500 list.

Sirius' acquisition of Omaha, Neb.-based Continuum closed on January 1. Although financial information related to the acquisition was undisclosed, Mertens said Continuum had a very skilled workforce and a sizeable business that was profitable.

Accenture

Company acquired: Altitude

Head count: 11-50 employees

Annual revenue: undisclosed

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 9

Accenture kicked off a busy month of acquisitions by purchasing Boston-based, privately owned design firm Altitude aiming to bolster its consumer insight, design and product engineering capabilities.

According to a statement from the Dublin, Ireland-based consultancy, the Altitude team will find its new home in Accenture's North American Connected Product Lifecycle Services practice.

Accenture will also use the acquisition to establish a Connected Products Studio in Boston, which is an emerging hub for IoT innovation, according to the company.

Perficient

Company acquired: RAS & Associates

Head count: 40 employees

Annual revenue: $9 million

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 4

Perficient purchased the 40-person management consultancy RAS & Associates, boosting Perficient's technology investment in areas including systems integration, data reporting and analytics.

The St. Louis-based company, No. 61 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, said its acquisition of RAS & Associates will enhance its management consulting offerings around strategy, operations and business process optimization.

Buying the Denver-based company will also strengthen Perficient's presence in the Rocky Mountain region, according to a company statement.

RAS is the fourth consulting firm acquired by Perficient in the past two years, and is the company's latest purchase in a buying spree that includes acquisitions of Atlanta-based mobile app consultant Bluetube in October; Ann Arbor, Mich.-based digital marketing firm Enlighten in December 2015; and Milwaukee-based e-commerce IT firm Zeon Solutions in December 2014.

Kudelski Group

Company acquired: M&S Technologies

Head count: 46 employees

Annual revenue: undisclosed

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 17

Swiss security conglomerate Kudelski Group bolstered its security unit’s scale when it acquired top security solution provider M&S Technologies, No. 33 on the CRN Solution Provider 500.

The acquisition of Dallas-based M&S makes Kudelski’s U.S. business one of the top three pure-play cyber security solution providers in the country, according to Kudelski Security CEO Rich Fennessy. A huge accomplishment considering that the company made its first U.S. solution provider acquisition only seven months ago.

M&S brings 46 employees to Kudelski, along with a number of Fortune 2000 customers and key security partnerships from security technology vendors including McAfee, Juniper, Fortinet and Sophos.

Axispoint

Company acquired: T2 Computing/Tekserve

Head count: 75 employees;

Annual revenue: undisclosed

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 11

Axispoint has purchased the business solutions arm of T2 Computing, a deal that included the rights to the Tekserve Apple reseller brand, supercharging Axispoint’s hardware and engineering capabilities.

T2, No. 193 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, closed its famous New York City retail location in August due to rising rents, the declining demand Apple device repairs and the increasing volume of Apple's own stores. Now, Tekserve's 75-person T2 operation, which was spun off as its own unit in 2014, will begin its next chapter as part of Axispoint, delivering a more well-rounded IT experience to SMB media and entertainment firms.

Following the acquisition, both Axispoint and T2 will be maintained as separate brands until July 2017 at least, DiSano said, with the T2 team working from its current base of operations in Manhattan.

AVI-SPL

Company acquired: VideoLink

Head count: 51-200 employees

Annual revenue: undisclosed

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 4

System integrator AVI-SPL made its second acquisition in six weeks, purchasing broadcasting platform specialist VideoLink and inching the company closer to becoming a $1 billion solution provider.

This latest acquisition, of Newton, Mass.-based VideoLink, will add a new platform to AVI-SPL's portfolio, according to John Zettel, CEO of AVI-SPL. He said the deal will help make them a "one-stop shop" for customers seeking to build the workplace of tomorrow.

The $600-million Tampa Fla.-based AVI-SPL also acquired San Diego, Calif.-based Anderson Audio Visual in November to strengthen its resources and presence in high-growth markets. The company also opened up a new office in Frankfurt ,Germany, to boost its financial services holdings in Europe.

AVI-SPL was bought by private equity firm H.I.G. Capital in April 2016.

Accenture

Company acquired: InvestTech Systems Consulting

Head count: less than 200 employees

Annual revenue: undisclosed

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 31

Accenture agreed to buy Los Angeles-based InvestTech Systems Consulting, hoping to bolster its ability to help global investment managers, institutional investors and asset services stay in front of new digital innovations and technologies.

Dublin, Ireland-based Accenture, No. 2 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, said InvestTech will become part of Accenture's Capital Markets practice and provide consulting, strategy, digital technology and outsourcing services.

The InvestTech deal is Accenture's second industry-focused asset-management acquisition in a little over a year following its December 2015 purchase of Beacon Consulting Group, which provides management consulting to five of the top 10 North American asset management firms.

Accenture

Company acquired: solid-serVision

Head count: 100 employees

Annual revenue: undisclosed

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 25

Accenture also acquired one of the largest ServiceNow solution providers in Europe, scooping up Germany-based solid-serVision into its cloud unit and adding over 100 ServiceNow specialists, who carry over 130 ServiceNow certifications to Accenture's resource pool.

The acquisition of solid-serVision builds upon a number of Accenture's other ServiceNow-facing acquisitions, including the purchase of Canada's Nashco, which added 25 certified ServiceNow specialists to Accenture's team. More recently it bought Atlanta-based Cloud Sherpas, a move that brought an additional 500 Salesforce.com certified experts to its practice.

Accenture

Company acquired: Seabury Group Aviation Consulting Business

Head count: 120 employees

Annual revenue: undisclosed

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 19

Accenture's January Accquisition spree also included the acquisition of Seabury Group's aviation consulting business, a deal the company made to help airlines accelerate their transition to a digital marketplace.

According to a statement from the Dublin, Ireland-based Accenture, Seabury's aviation business was tucked into Accenture's global aviation practice, bringing 120 employees with it.

Systems Maintenance Services (SMS)

Company acquired: Curvature

Head count: 501-1000 employees

Annual revenue: $228 million

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 19

IT lifecycle services companies Systems Maintenance Services (SMS) and Curvature announced their intension to merge in order to create a $500 million IT asset lifecycle services powerhouse.

The deal, slated to close by the end of February, will combine $250-million IT services and lifecycle maintenance provider SMS and $288-million, third-party IT services and networking hardware provider Curvature. The newly combined companies will have 2,000 employees and a broad range of third-party IT data center services and hardware offerings that cover server, storage and networking.

"Together, we are category-killing,’ said Mike Sheldon, CEO of Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Curvature, No. 84 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, in an interview with CRN.

CenturyLink

Company acquired: Seal Consulting

Head count: 501-1000 employees

Annual revenue: undisclosed

Purchase price: undisclosed

Date of announcement: Jan. 9

CenturyLink agreed to acquire SAP solution provider Seal Consulting to build out its integrated SAP portfolio and broaden its SAP implementation services.

Per terms of the agreement, Monroe, La. -based CenturyLink will gain Seal Consulting's implementation and support expertise across a number of SAP products, which include SAP ERP Central Component, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business Suite, SAP BW/4HANA, SAP Ariba, SAP Hybris, SAP CRM, SAP Basis, SAP Security, SAP Fiori, SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence, as well as supply chain management, governance, risk and compliance solutions.

The deal also brings to CenturyLink deeper expertise in a number of industry verticals, CenturyLink said in a statement.

The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017.