Best Buy Sells mindSHIFT MSP Business to Ricoh

Office equipment, printer and digital imaging company Ricoh today announced it will be acquiring mindSHIFT, BestBuy’s (BBY) cloud and managed services business, to expand its service portfolio. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Best Buy acquired mindSHIFT in 2011 for $167 million and the deal was completed in January 2012, just two years ago.

FOR A LOOK BACK AT mindSHIFT’s M&A HISTORY, CLICK HERE

Tokyo-based Ricoh said the addition of mindSHIFT’s customer service professionals “will bring a wide array of benefits to the customers Ricoh is currently serving through its proven services organization of more than 8,000 specialists.”

Ricoh Americas COO and EVP Tracey Rothenberger told MSPmentor in an interview that the “acquisition is a strategic investment for Ricoh.”

“IT Services is a primary focus for Ricoh and an important part of our customer offerings,” he said. “With that in mind, over the past six months, we have made several strong, scalable investments in our IT Services business as part of our commitment and focus to expand our services portfolio. This acquisition is part of that strategy.”

In addition, the acquisition will enable Ricoh to expand “customer relationships and IT Services portfolio, and drive value and growth in this space” through “mindSHIFT’s leadership in the SMB space,” he said.

MindSHIFT will continue to operate under its current name, management team and capabilities, which currently include 650 employees at offices in Boston; Chicago; Long Island, N.Y.; Minneapolis; Morrisville, N.C.; New York City; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; and Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas, Texas.

When Best Buy acquired mindSHIFT, the company managed 25,000 desktops for 5,400 clients, according to the press release announcing the deal. Today mindSHIFT works with 6,900 clients, according to the Ricoh  press release issued today.

The acquisition is expected to close in February 2014 at which time mindSHIFT will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh.

With regards to future acquisitions, Rothenberger said the company plans to expand resources to offer further solutions to its customers.

“We will continue to make business decisions that will further expand our services offerings throughout and beyond 2014,” he said.

MSPmentor speculated back in November 2013 that Best Buy had plans to sell mindSHIFT, questioning Best Buy’s involvement in the managed services provider (MSP) business.

MindSHIFT President and CEO Mona Abutaleb succeeded Paul Chisholm, former CEO of mindSHIFT, in November 2013.

Best Buy acquired mindSHIFT back in November 2011. The managed and cloud services business has been a contender in our MSPmentor 501 survey for several years and has also been recognized on our Top 100 Cloud Services Provider (CSP) list on Talkin’ Cloud.

(Updated at 12:50 p.m. on Jan. 21.)

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