Perficient Expects IBM-Red Hat Deal To Boost Its Sales

IBM and Red Hat have each reached out to Perficient about being a “key partner” in bringing the two companies together “in the field” once IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat is complete, Perficient CEO Jeff Davis told investors on the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

He expects the union of the tech heavyweights to drive leads and sales.

“What always changes when IBM makes an acquisition is once they turn their substantial sales force on to those new solutions and services, growth happens pretty quickly,” he said on the earnings call. “Which again, should increase lead flow to us. We’re going to automatically be a go-to partner because of the relationship we have with Red Hat already.”

Perficient was named the Red Hat Rising Star Partner of the Year for 2018, which recognized the company for its collaboration and investment within its Red Hat partnership, as well as its ability to “achieve success in bringing Red Hat technologies and services to customers.” Perficient also stated during the earnings call that it does 25 percent of its platform business with IBM. As a result, Davis said, Perficient is well positioned to take advantage of this potential merger.

“For us, it’s two great partnerships joining forces. We are known and thought highly of by everybody on both sides,” he said. “Both sides have already reached out and expressed an interest in us being a key partner and helping bring them together out in the field. We’re excited about that. If nothing else, it should drive a lot of leads our way. In fact, I’m confident it will, from both sides of that. We know all the salespeople and have a great relationship with them.

IBM said Sunday that it plans to acquire open-source cloud computing powerhouse Red Hat for $34 billion. Once completed, the deal makes IBM one of the leading companies for cloud computing alongside Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.

“I would tell you it’s no secret that IBM’s portfolio is a little behind,” Davis said. “I think this is transformational for IBM. I think we’ll be right in the catbird seat to take advantage of that. They’re betting the farm on this, quite obviously ... and we’re seeing a lot of demand around cloud development Platform as a Service with Red Hat OpenShift, [which] is going to be an incredible component to IBM’s portfolio now.”

Perficient reported flat revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 with $123.9 million in sales compared with $123.7 million in the year-ago quarter. The St. Louis-based company posted net income of $6.3 million for the quarter with a GAAP earnings per share of 19 cents.

On Monday Perficient said it had bought Elixiter, a digital marketing company that will boost the solution provider’s marketing automation services as well as help it forge customer relationships with Fortune 1,000 companies across several verticals.

The deal also adds 40 consulting, technology, sales and general administrative professionals to Perficient’s workforce. Elixiter is a $6 million marketing consultancy that specializes in Marketo marketing automation services.