M&A: Prominent Master Managed Services Provider Acquired

clearpointe

According to a prepared release,

Translation: Lane Smith will continue to run Do IT Smarter‘s master MSP efforts. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is ClearPointes‘s third acquisition in roughly a year. The others involved:

According to a prepared statement from Jeff Johnson, president and CEO of ClearPointe, the company has generated “double digit business growth for the past few years.”

Do IT Smarter’s Focus

So what exactly does ClearPointe gain by buying Do IT Smarter?

Simply put, Do IT Smarter is a Master MSP — which assists VARs and aspiring MSPs with the transition to managed services. Do IT Smarter’s offerings include remote management services, help desk services, and managed security services.

A few years ago, MSPmentor expected the Master MSP market to be quite large. But some aspiring Master MSPs found it too expensive to recruit and transform VARs into MSPs. Still, there are a number of Master MSPs that continue to work across the industry. Noteworthy examples beyond Do IT Smarter include Ingram Micro Seismic, Virtual Administrator, MSP Services Network and Cloud Services Depot. By the way, MSP Services Network changed ownership in 2009, when an investor entity led by Gerard Kane acquired the company.

Meanwhile, master MSPs face intensifying competition in some market niches. For instance, companies like NetEnrich and Zenith Infotech have been applying price pressure and economies of scale in the help desk and NOC (network operations center) services markets.

More MSP M&A activity seems to be approaching. In one prime example, All Covered CEO Todd Croteau says his company will likely make two MSP-related M&A deals over the next few months, and as many as 50 deals over the next three years.

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