Private Equity Firm to Buy ConvergeOne

IT and managed services provider ConvergeOne is being acquired by CVC Capital Partners, a private equity and investment advisory firm, in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.8 billion.

ConvergeOne expects the transaction to close either this quarter or the first quarter of 2019. The company will maintain its corporate headquarters in Eagan, Minnesota, and continue to be led by its current executive team.

ConvergeOne’s Scott Clark

Scott Clark, ConvergeOne’s vice president of marketing, tells Channel Partners that since this is a private-equity merger, “there really is no change, it’s business as usual from a partner perspective in terms of program and how we go to market together.” Part of his job is working with partners and overseeing the partner program.

“There is great growth potential in that CVC is a global private equity firm with relationships [globally],” he said. “We have acquisition desires to expand our business internationally and we believe that CVC will be a great partner in helping us to do that. So there [are] growth opportunities for our partners, especially those that operate on an international level already.”

ConvergeOne does support customers that have international locations, and this acquisition should allow an extension of that reach, Clark said.

“The competitive advantage continues with our services-led model,” he said. “What really differentiates ConvergeOne is managed services, cloud services and professional services, so there’s the opportunity to expand that and being a part of the ConvergeOne [partner] program opens up additional opportunities and again, expansion.”

ConvergeOne has partnerships with more than 300 global industry leaders, including Avaya, Cisco, IBM, Genesys and Microsoft to customize specific business outcomes.

“We are very impressed by the momentum of ConvergeOne and share their excitement for the company’s growth potential,” said Chris Colpitts, CVC’s senior managing director. “ConvergeOne has a significant opportunity to capitalize on the cloud adoption and digital-transformation tailwinds of its enterprise customers. Using our industry expertise and global network, we look forward to supporting ConvergeOne’s continued growth, both organically and through its proven M&A program.”

Last month, ConvergeOne announced it has acquired Advantel Networks, an IT service management company, and earlier this year it acquired Arrow Electronics’ SI business, specializing in unified communications, contact center, and voice and data technologies.