M&A Roundup: Deloitte, Granite, HPE, Spectrotel, Telarus, Multiple MSPs
Partners and vendors are filling gaps in their portfolios buying cloud and security capabilities.
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HPE‘s purchase of a San Francisco startup will expand its artificial intelligence capabilities.
The vendor bought Determined AI, which uses open source machine learning to train AI models. As a result, HPE will gain “faster and more accurate” data insights.
Christine Horton wrote about HPE’s acquisition.
The Utah-based technology services distributor bought another East Coast company.
Telarus purchased Comtel Communications, a Virginia-based firm that sells through about 100 subagents and 350 suppliers. Telarus executives praised the Comtel agent base as very loyal.
Comtel president and CEO Ben Humphreys explained why he took the offer.
The cloud data and analytics vendor sold itself to three private equity firms in a move that takes it off Wall Street.
The all-cash deal totals $5.3 billion. According to an analyst, going private lets Cloudera “grow faster and with less pressure” than Wall Street allowed it to.
Craig Galbraith wrote about the move.
Upstack, the direct selling agency and purchasing platform bought a telecommunications consultancy.
Another successful agent joined Upstack’s team in the form of PacTech partners. Chris Wright launched PacTech in 2014 after leaving a career in finance, and he quickly established himself in the enterprise space. He’ll hold equity in Upstack.
Read why Upstack is buying agents like PacTech.
The cybersecurity company announced plans to sell its products division.
A private equity consortium is buying the struggling products unit for $1.2 billion. FireEye will also sell its name, and the remaining company will go as Mandiant. It will provide consulting, managed defense, threat intelligence and automated defense.
FireEye bought Mandiant in 2013.
Edward Gately has the scoop.
Granite Telecommunications bought a plain old telephone (POTS) replacement device provider.
Epik provides low-cost alternatives to customers that rely on TDM technology. Granite will pair the POTS alternative with network installation, service and support.
Craig Galbraith wrote about the factors behind the acquisition.
The high-powered consultancy/VAR purchased a cloud security posture management (CSPM) provider.
CloudQuest, the newest acquisition, remediates risks in IaaS, SaaS and PaaS environments. It uses Google Cloud Platform.
Apparently Deloitte will continue to buy cloud-focused security companies. In particular, it’s pursuing providers of cloud security orchestration and other capabilities.
Check out Kelly Teal’s bombastic reporting.
Telecommunications service provider Spectrotel bolstered its managed IT game.
Spectrotel bought managed services assets from the MSP Matrix. Matrix’s president is joining Spectrotel as vice president of managed services.
Allison Francis covered the news.
Forcepoint can better protect government infrastructure thanks to its latest acquisition.
The Texas cybersecurity provider bought U.K.-based Deep Secure. Forcepoint will add Deep Secure’s threat removal platform and hardware security to its Cross Domain portfolio.
Get details on the Forcepoint deal.
IT consulting and managed services provider Unisys made an acquisition that will improve its UCaaS practice.
Unify Square, which Unisys bought for $153 million, provides managed services for Teams, Zoom and other UC&C platforms.
Unisys has turned to an inorganic growth strategy after selling its government services division last year.
Jeffrey Schwartz wrote about the acquisition.
We learned more about why U.K. distributor Nuvias bought Cloud Distribution.
Nuvias CEO Simon England said Cloud Distribution’s forward-thinking engagement model stood out to Nuvias’ team. For example, Cloud Distribution introduced its resellers to Meraki before Cisco acquired Meraki.
Also, Nuvias is pursuing other acquisitions.
Christine Horton spoke to England about its M&A strategy.
The network detection and response company is selling itself for $900 million.
Two private equity firms teamed up to buy ExtraHop. They pointed to the rise in high-profile supply chain attacks, like the one that affected Kaseya, as a reason why companies like ExtraHop provide more value than ever,
In the meantime, ExtraHop executives vowed to expand their channel sales team.
Read about the transaction.
Core BTS, an Indiana-based MSP, bought Aptera Software in a move that improves its cloud posture.
Core started as a VAR and systems integrator, but it has evolved into an MSP through a series of acquisitions. Moreover, it has invested heavily in its Microsoft cloud stack. It bought another Microsoft Cloud-focused partner earlier this year.
Learn why Core made the move.
New York-based MSP Logicalis improved its software-defined services practice through a transaction.
Newly purchased Siticom specializes in network transformation and modernization. In particular, Siticom provides software-defined networking (SDN) and 5G expertise operating out of five German locations.
You can read about it in Allison Francis’ Spectrotel story.
Canadian Salesforce partner OSF Digital bought its fourth company in two months.
Most recently, OSF purchased Paladin Group, a California-based Salesforce consulting partner. OSF has also bought partners from New Zealand and Brazil.
OSF used a $43 million private eqity investment to make the deals.
Check out Kelly Teal’s reporting.
Canadian Salesforce partner OSF Digital bought its fourth company in two months.
Most recently, OSF purchased Paladin Group, a California-based Salesforce consulting partner. OSF has also bought partners from New Zealand and Brazil.
OSF used a $43 million private eqity investment to make the deals.
Check out Kelly Teal’s reporting.
Partner M&A continues to hit the news wire.
We’re seeing MSPs and agents participate in consolidation like never before. Yes, there’s no shortage of IT and security vendors that are buying and selling and getting involved with private equity, but the partners are doing M&A in a big way. Core BTS continued its evolution from VAR to cloud-focused MSP with the acquisition of Aptera Software. Upstack continues to lure telecom consultancies with its deep pockets and the promise of agent equity.
Not all M&A news made the gallery. For example, Xerox enhanced its SMB practice by purchasing a document solutions provider, and Cisco finished purchasing a vulnerability management platform.
Check out the 16 acquisitions that we covered in the slideshow above.
Did you see our previous monthly M&A recap? Check it out.
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