Valeo Networks Acquires Alura: Seventh MSP Deal In Three Years

‘We are looking primarily for recurring revenue. We want to see customers who have contracts that let us manage their networks for a fixed managed fee, as well as professional services opportunities,’ says Valeo Networks CFO Randall Wheeler.

MSP and MSSP Valeo Networks this week made its seventh acquisition in less than three years as part of a plan to build a national presence.

Valeo Networks Thursday unveiled the acquisition of Alura Business Solutions, a Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based MSP. No dollar value for the acquisition was disclosed.

Randall Wheeler, CFO of Rockledge, Fla.-based Valeo Networks, listed in the CRN Security 100, said his company is growing rapidly as it focuses on acquiring more MSPs and MSSPs to build a national managed service provider.

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“We are looking primarily for recurring revenue,” Wheeler told CRN. “We want to see customers who have contracts that let us manage their networks for a fixed managed fee, as well as professional services opportunities. We like to see MSPs with 65 [percent] to 70 percent of their revenue coming from managed services, 10 [percent] to 20 percent from professional services, and 10 [percent] to 20 percent from hardware and software sales.”

Alura is a profitable company that brings Valeo Networks its first presence in the state of Pennsylvania, Wheeler said.

“Alura has a great reputation and is very well run,” he said. “The owner is a young person who is very motivated and who plans to stay on with Valeo. In fact, all but two of the seven owners of MSPs we have acquired have stayed with us.”

Alura is Valeo Networks’ seventh acquisition since April 2020, when Saalex Information Technology acquired Valeo Networks. Saalex in August of that year then adopted the Valeo Networks name.

Valeo Networks in May 2020 acquired Eugene, Ore.-based Arctic MSP. It followed that move in August with the acquisition of Network Management Services, a Eureka, Calif.-based MSP, and in December with the acquisition of Etech Solutions, a Des Moines, Iowa-based MSP.

Valeo Networks made one acquisition in 2021, that of On Time Tech, which was based in the San Francisco area.

Alura is the second acquisition for Valeo Networks which in May also acquired Next I.T, a Muskegon, Mich.-based MSP.

Valeo Networks is currently talking to a number of potential acquisition candidates, Wheeler said. The company has engaged three to four buy-side and sell-side brokers to help identify candidates, which included Alura, he said.

“It’s hard to predict what might happen,” he said. “But don’t be surprised if we do one more this year.”

Valero Networks has financial support from private debt investment it received in October from Clear Vision Impact Fund, a New York-based investment initiative sponsored by an affiliate of Siebert Williams Shank & Co. and managed by SWS Capital Management. “Clear Vision Impact Fund is focused on helping minority-owned companies grow through acquisitions,” Wheeler said.