IBM VAR MCS Acquires Barsa's Power-focused Business
MCS, of Ronkonkoma, N.Y., bought Barsa, of Purchase, N.Y., 18 months after that company's founder, Al Barsa, passed away. Barsa Systems Distribution had revenue of over $10 million with a base of over 200 customers throughout New England, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
The two solution providers share a common focus on the IBM Power series of servers, which combine IBM's legacy System i and System p server lines, said Philip Maehr, MCS president.
Maehr declined to say how much his company paid for the Barsa business or how many of its employees are moving to MCS. However, he said all the company's tech personnel are coming to MCS.
While MCS and Barsa share a common IBM Power focus, they have little customer overlap, Maehr said. MCS has traditionally focused on small to midsize customers, while Barsa has traditionally served larger midsize and enterprise customers.
"So for us, there's no cannibalizing of our business," he said. "This acquisition gives us a deeper bench and a wider breadth of expertise."
The acquisition came about as the result of the death of Al Barsa, who Maehr said was a very well respected member of the IBM System i community, and the man often known as "Mister AS/400."
"He passed away 18 months ago in his hotel room while attending the [IBM System i] common users group conference," he said. "He was a leader in the System i community, and had the corner in the northeast market. Barsa did a lot of beta testing for IBM, and handled many banks and insurance customers."
Barsa's wife, Sue Barsa, has been running the company since Al Barsa's death, but she decided that it was not her specialty, Maehr said. Therefore, she sold the solution provider portion to MCS, but continues to run a separate division that distributes the TAA Productivity Tools for System i servers, he said.
The IBM Power server market has steadied in the past couple years, with the current recession having the effect of pushing customers to upgrade existing products, Maehr said. In fact, he said, there is even a bit of an increase in new installs.
"What's really good for us is consolidation," he said. "A lot of companies and VARs have been drifting out of niche markets. So companies like ours get stronger. You become a bigger fish in a smaller pond."