EchoStor Makes First Acquisition With CyberNorth Buy, CEO Says ‘We’re Not Slowing Down’

‘We're going to continue to expand throughout the Northeast and then expand south from there. This will be one of a number of acquisitions we’re looking to make over the next 24 months. So we’ll be busy here. But it’s definitely exciting to bring the two teams together,’ EchoStor CEO Mike Johnson tells CRN.

EchoStor has expanded its reach in the Northeastern U.S. IT services market with the acquisition of Portland, Maine-based CyberNorth. EchoStor CEO Mike Johnson told CRN in an exclusive meeting that the acquisition, its first, not only gives it an expanded geographical reach, but also expands its data center services capabilities and makes it a larger ServiceNow partner.

It is the first in what Johnson said will be more acquisitions as it looks to quickly ramp up its client and services reach.

“We’re going to continue to be passionate about supporting our customers as they go through their evolving digital transformation needs,” he said. “We’re here to support them. And we’re not slowing down. We’re going to continue to expand throughout the Northeast and then expand south from there. This will be one of a number of acquisitions we’re looking to make over the next 24 months.”

EchoStor and CyberNorth are fast-growing solution providers, with over 70 percent annual growth rates, Johnson said. The combined company will now have over 200 employees, he said.

Complementary customer bases and similar company cultures made EchoStor’s acquisition of CyberNorth a no-brainer, Johnson said.

For more about EchoStor and channel M&A, read CRN’s full conversation with Johnson.

How do you define EchoStor?

How do I define EchoStor? Well, I think after the acquisition, even more importantly, I view us as the premier solution provider in the Northeast. I think last time we chatted in late 2023, we were rolling out a comprehensive solution portfolio. We’ve grown outside of the traditional next-gen data center, and we’ve certainly evolved and expanded our go-to-market solutions and services. So we’ve certainly been growing since we last chatted.

We are [based] in Norwood, Massachusetts. We have offices in Connecticut and Vermont as well, and we are close to expanding into upstate New York and Maine as well. We were planning to grow upstate New York organically, just a geographic expansion there of what we presently have in that territory. The Maine office will come through this recent acquisition.

Then let’s talk about that. What's the news?

We're thrilled to announce the acquisition of CyberNorth. They are a regional solution provider [based] in Portland, Maine. They also have offices in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. As part of that acquisition, we will be expanding their Maine presence in Portland and then consolidating their Massachusetts and Rhode Island offices to our headquarters in Norwood. We are super excited about this acquisition. It’s our first acquisition as a company. And as I said earlier, this solidifies our position as the premier solution provider in the Northeast as we continue to penetrate that market while keeping an eye on expanding into other geographies as well.

Your first acquisition? What did it take to get you to pull the cord on making an acquisition?

M&A has always been part of our overall growth strategy, but we’ve been pretty patient. I’ve seen some other companies make acquisitions relatively rushed and fractured, but we’ve been patient. We looked at a number of companies inside and outside of the region, and we looked at expanding into new geographies with companies that could expand our go-to-market capabilities or overall technical capabilities. Ultimately, we’re looking for companies that share similar core values, culture and people focus as EchoStor. Because ultimately, we’re in the people business. Those are the values that support great customers. We have a deep passion for customer success.

That said, we narrowed down the list and ultimately landed on CyberNorth. I’ve known their organization since they were founded about 10 years ago. Their president, Jeremy Lombardo, and I have run in the same professional circles for nearly 20 years, both as partners during his time on the OEM side, with stints at NetApp and Dell EMC, and then, most recently, as competitors. But we never really overlapped much when we were running competitive businesses. We had some great conversations. They checked all the boxes. CyberNorth gives us presence in northern New England. We’ve always had great customers in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, but those guys really had a heavy presence in those markets. This acquisition allows us to really expand within the region and leverage some of our synergies with some customer base up north and bring two companies together. We just felt that bringing the two workforces together would build a bigger, better company. And I think that’s what we've done.

What is Lombardo’s role in EchoStor going forward?

Jeremy was the president and founder of CyberNorth. He is now president at EchoStor, where he is responsible for our go-to-market for sales, sales engineering, marketing and alliances. Two of CyberNorth’s other founders will play impactful roles on our leadership team as well.

Was this acquisition made from EchoStor’s cash on hand, or did you take any outside investment?

No, no investment. All done in-house, which is certainly a proud moment for us. We’ve experienced pretty significant growth year over year. From 2023 to 2024, we grew revenue about 78 percent, which is quite significant. CyberNorth’s business grew about 72 percent year over year from 2023 to 2024. These are two red-hot businesses. Bringing those companies together is just great. And obviously, with the growth we’ve experienced, we’ve continued to reinvest in the business, both in talent acquisition as well as our first foray into mergers and acquisitions.

Is this acquisition primarily for geographic expansion, or is there a certain skill set that you’re also getting that you didn’t have before?

For the EchoStor side, it’s certainly a geographic expansion. We talked about doing business in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and upstate New York. But we are certainly picking up some technical capabilities from their team. They have a rock star team of presales engineers and delivery engineers. They’re also unlocking some additional manufacturer partner opportunities for us. For example, these guys are an HP Gold partner. So from an infrastructure business perspective, it will open up other opportunities. CyberNorth was a very focused organization in the data center. This acquisition will really unlock the full end-to-end experience for our combined clients, from data center through security and networking through AI. It lets us bring clients that end-to-end experience for digital transformation. So for EchoStor, it was geographical expansion and additional technical capabilities and partnership levels. For CyberNorth, it was a no-brainer. This gave them a more expansive portfolio for their customers.

Was CyberNorth a profitable company?

Very much so. They had been in business for about 10 years.

With the acquisition of CyberNorth, what’s your total head count?

The two companies together bring us to just over the 200-employee mark. We’re certainly growing on the employee count side. We will maintain some of their regional offices for continuity with their employees and their customers. We are retaining all CyberNorth employees, which is great, and we are in the process of integrating their team with ours. It’s super exciting. I would also add that this gives EchoStor some expansion into a few new verticals and markets. For example, these guys have a great presence in public sector, so it allows us to start to get involved in some of the state institutions across the Northeast. They’re also very much ingrained in the higher- education space as well, which is a good synergy with EchoStor. So we’ll look to expand on that. And we don’t have a lot of customer overlap. I mentioned that we’ve run in the same circles here in the Northeast, but maybe we have one or two overlapping customers. But for the most part, we’re bringing two really strong customer bases together.

How much did EchoStor pay for CyberNorth?

I can’t disclose that. What I will tell you is that, again, with the growth rate that we both experience, things are not slowing down, and we’re already projecting another remarkable year of growth next year.

Does CyberNorth bring a recurring revenue business to EchoStor?

They do, 100 percent, definitely through a consumption-based model on the traditional infrastructure side, which will expand our recurring revenue model. And then we’ll be giving them a more expansive set of solutions from ServiceNow and Microsoft and security that will only enhance that part of its revenue.

So EchoStar is a ServiceNow partner?

We are indeed a ServiceNow partner. We have six pillars in our go-to-market, including our next-gen data center, security, networking and modern workplace businesses, which are really part of our Microsoft consulting practice, along with our digital workflow business, which is all ServiceNow, and data and AI services.

Anything else we need to know about EchoStor and what it’s doing with this acquisition?

We’re just excited to talk about bringing two high-growth companies together. I think when you look at the two companies’ cultures, you will see a common theme in our customer-first culture. Our employees have a simple, secure customer-first culture. We’re in a business where it’s all about the success of our clients. So across the board, we’re going to continue to be passionate about supporting our customers as they go through their evolving digital transformation needs. We’re here to support them. And we’re not slowing down. We're going to continue to expand throughout the Northeast and then expand south from there. This will be one of a number of acquisitions we’re looking to make over the next 24 months. So we’ll be busy here. But it’s definitely exciting to bring the two teams together.