Private Equity-Fueled Bluewave Makes 6th Agent Acquisition

Bluewave Technology Group, the technology advisory and life cycle management provider, has announced the acquisition of another agency.

San Jose, California-based Telapprise agreed to a deal with Parsippany, New Jersey-based Bluewave. They did not disclose financial terms of the deal. The acquisition, which closed a few weeks ago, comes after Bluewave announced a $75 million growth investment from private equity firm Columbia Capital. The deal marks Bluewave’s sixth purchase.

Telapprise brings a wireless expense management practice that will complement the managed TEM services Bluewave provides. It also offers technology assessment and strategic sourcing services.

Bluewave’s Seth Penland

“They brought a lot of skill set to the table on day one,” Bluewave CEO Seth Penland told Channel Futures.

Telapprise supports the services of all multiple mobility carriers, and it partners directly with AT&T. Bluewave executives have said they will leverage technology solutions brokerages (TSBs) for their supplier contracts, but Penland said Bluewave will go direct in certain circumstances that make sense.

“AT&T is one of those unique relationships where there’s some advantages of having a direct relationship. I would say with most carriers, that’s not the case,” Penland said.

Telapprise

Telapprise launched in 2002 as a telecom auditing firm. Marko Spremo, Telapprise’s vice president of sales and marketing, and Davin Lundy, vice president of client services, both came from Planetary Networks. The company evolved to take a business process outsourcing (BPO) to telecom expense management in 2007.

Now the company serves more than 500 medium-to-large enterprise customers.

The company had been looking to scale but was finding the organic route challenging. Penland said they were looking to add more people and resources, particularly in engineering. However, that investment was going to cost them.

“That’s a difficult calculus to make when you’re a small business owner,” Penland said. “You’re going to take profitability down, and that really impacts your short-term earning potential.”

Telapprise picked Bluewave out of its list of options.

Bluewave’s Marko Spremo

“It was crucial that we found the right partner that shared our belief that technology should provide companies with reliable and predictable outcomes, not added stress or wasted time and money,” Spremo said. “Enterprises need a strategic adviser throughout the technology life cycle to simplify the process and deliver value. Bluewave has a similar customer-obsessed culture and strategy for success. Joining forces with them gives us the resources to make our vision a reality.”

Spremo and Lundy found synergies with Bluewave’s approach. Lundy said his team can continue to keep their clients at the center of business.

“Technology transformation is complex and requires experts across the technology stack — in integrations, telecom, mobile, cloud, and expense management,” Lundy said. “By joining Bluewave, we now have a deeper bench of specialized resources that will enable us to work with our clients to optimize their technology investments continuously.”

Personnel

Telapprise’s 23 employees have joined Bluewave following the acquisition. Spremo will take the role of Bluewave’s vice president of sales strategy. Lundy will serve as vice president of operations strategy.

“They were wearing a lot of hats in terms of running the business,” Penland said. “We were able to take a lot of those hats off and enable them to really focus on what they’re great at, which is strategy around operations and sales.”

Read more about Bluewave’s origins.