Acuity Hopes To Double Revenue With Piece Of Solunet

The Tampa, Fla.-based solution provider, No. 5 on the 2008 CRN Fast Growth 100, has hired about a dozen sales and engineering staff from Solunet, a West Melbourne, Fla.-based VAR.

The additions should double Acuity's revenue over the next year to about $70 million, said Dave Gilden, COO of Acuity. The solution provider also could now be Juniper Networks' largest reseller in the United States, Gilden said.

Solunet was a regular member of the VARBusiness 500, reaching that distinction seven times between 1999 and 2007. Most recently, it was ranked No. 447 in 2007, with $66 million in revenue.

Solunet's former CEO, Philip O'Reilly, jumped ship to join Juniper in July as senior vice president of U.S. enterprise sales.

It's unclear what will happen with the rest of Solunet. Sources said Sun Capital Partners could be looking to liquidate the assets of the solution provider. Sun Capital has investments in a variety of enterprises, from Smokey Bones Barbecue and Grill to Chrysler Holdings, according to its Web site.

Executives at Juniper, Solunet and Sun Capital Partners, Solunet's parent company, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Acuity Solutions did not pay any cash to acquire the Solunet staff, Gilden said. Instead, the solution provider just added the employees, which include sales and engineering staff across the country.

"It kind of fell into our lap," Gilden said. "It enabled us to add a lot to our U.S. reach. We're now in a lot of other cities we were not in before."

The Solunet staff was added in Atlanta, Boston, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Dallas and Seattle. "These guys had a strong presence in the service provider space," Gilden said.

Gilden said Solunet for years has competed against Acuity, which had a Southeast reach and a federal presence in Washington, prior to adding the Solunet staff.