ePlus Continues Acquisition String With ABS Technology To Expand Mid-Atlantic Footprint

The acquisition, the firm’s 27th since 1997, helps fill a hole in its education business coverage in its own home state of Virginia.

Solution provider ePlus has acquired all but a tiny bit of one of its peers, ABS Technology, in a move to fill in a hole in its Eastern seaboard coverage.

ePlus acquired all of Innovative Technology Systems & Solutions, which does business as ABS Technology, except for a small structural cabling company, said Kleyton Parkhurst, senior vice president of Herndon, Virg.-based ePlus.

"Structural cabling is not a strategic line for us," Parkhurst told CRN. "But they now are a valued sub-contractor for us."

[Related: ePlus Buys Rival SLAIT To Boost Governance, Risk, Compliance Skills]

ABS Technology, a Virginia Beach, Va.-based Cisco solution provider with MSP and professional services practices, fills an unusual hole in ePlus' geographical coverage, Parkhurst. The company brings along a nice K-12 and higher education business as well as a number of healthcare customers in the Virginia area, he said.

"Strangely enough, we have K-12 and higher ed customers all over, but not in Virginia," he said.

Nearly all of ABS' sales and services leadership team is joining ePlus, Parkhurst said.

"The owner is staying behind to run the cabling business," he said. "We would like him to join us, but he hasn't decided. For now, it's more important for him to service our joint customers in the cabling space."

ePlus typically makes acquisition for one of two reasons, Parkhurst said. The first is for geographic expansion into green field or new technology models, and the second is for emerging technology, he said.

ePlus has made 27 acquisitions since 1997, Parkhurst said.

Its most recent acquisition was that of SLAIT Consulting, an IT consulting and solutions provider headquartered in Virginia Beach, Va., with a strong footprint in the mid-Atlantic region. That acquisition brought ePlus a focus on security consulting as well as managed service, help desk, staffing, and data center solutions.

Other ePlus acquisitions have helped the company reach new markets and geographies. In September 2017, its acquisition of Integrated Data Storage brought ePlus an increased Midwest footprint and a strong services offering for data protection and disaster recovery.

The company's May 2017 acquisition of OneCloud Consulting, a software developer and Cisco premier partner; and the December 2016 acquisition of Consolidated Communications IT Services, gave ePlus a broad range of data center, collaboration, networking, and security solutions and services and a strong Cisco practice.

Financial terms of the ABS Technology acquisition were not disclosed.