MSP Acquistion: Dimension Data Nabs Bluefire, Netforce

Dimension Data

Dimension Data’s acquisition of both BlueFire and Netforce is not at all a surprise. The IT service provider has been moving in on BlueFire, an Australian managed and cloud IT telecommunications services company, since it initially invested in BlueFire back in 2008. Then in 2010 Dimension made another investment in BlueFire and made an initial investment in Netforce that led to the merger of BlueFire and Netforce.

BlueFire and Netforce bring aboard over 500 SMB customers throughout Australia, Asia and the Pacific Rim. In total, the BlueFire brand, which includes Netforce, operates seven data centers and hosts well over 2,500 servers. In reality, BlueFire has been a part of the Dimension Data Group since 2010, so this full acquisition is really a formality; just dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s, I believe. It also makes BlueFire an official member of Dimension Data’s Cloud solutions business unit — something of significance to Dimension Data Australia CEO Steve Nola.

“The advantage in having BlueFire as a fully-owned entity and part of our new global Cloud Solutions business unit is that we are now able to extend its world-leading intellectual property and resources to develop services and solutions to benefit our broader multinational business,” Nola said in a prepared statement.

BlueFire business customers will now have full access to Dimension Data’s IT integration solutions and managed services expertise, along with access to additional Dimension solutions like the managed video services that Dimension Data released in October 2011.