VAR FusionStorm Acquires MSP GNi

FusionStorm this week said it has acquired Global Netoptex (GNi), a San Jose, Calif.-based managed service provider with a focus on the gaming industry.

John Varel, CEO of FusionStorm, declined to say how much his company paid for GNi. However, he did say FusionStorm paid for the deal in part with cash and in part with an equity swap with Hummer Winbald Venture Partners, a GNi shareholder.

"Hummer Winbald is a partner of ours now," Varel said. "It was a mutual agreement. We could have done this with cash, but they saw the value of Fusion storm. It's very accretive to our bottom line."

GNi, founded in 2002, provided infrastructure-as-a-service solutions to customers in the multi-player online gaming, SaaS, Web 2.0, and digital media markets.

For FusionStorm, the acquisition of GNi doubles its managed services business, which has been around for about 10 years, and brings it a new customer base of 115 companies, Varel said.

It also means an opportunity to bring some of FusionStorm's other products and services to a new customer base, he said.

"We can now lay on top of the gaming vertical a lot of services those customers didn't have before," he said. "These customers at least need data storage and archiving, security, and other things. There's a lot more value-add we can bring them."