Calgary-based Graycon Group Ltd., an IT consulting firm, has acquired B.C.-based solution provider, Voda Computer Systems Ltd., to help expand its reach into Western Canada.
Mike Blackwell, vice-president and chief operating officer at Graycon, said the acquisition took place over the span of several months, with the deal closing at the end of March.
Initially, he said Graycon wasn’t actively pursing a merger and acquisition (M&A) strategy with Voda, but once the companies learned that Voda was engaged with a customer that was already a client of Graycon’s, executives from both companies quickly began discussions with each other. After realizing several synergies between the two businesses, it became clear that a M&A would make sense, Blackwell explained.
“We acquired them to become bigger and stronger and to help expand into more customers,” Blackwell said. “Being a services organization, we already had a broad cross-section of services. But what Voda brings to us is their very strong vendor connections, for example, with IBM (NYSE: IBM), which is a company we’re now able to do more business with.”
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but to help put things into perspective, Voda was listed as one of CDN‘s Top 100 Solution Providers in 2009, with revenues totaling between $5 to 10 million. The company has also been awarded with CDN‘s Channel Elite Award for Best Channel Marketing Initiative in 2009.
Blackwell said all 30 of Voda’s employees have been retained, with Andrew Watson, the former president of Voda, coming on board as the head of the B.C. region at Graycon and Wade Ball, an owner of Voda, is now the head of delivery for Graycon’s B.C. region.
With the acquisition, Graycon has inherited both of Voda’s offices located in Kamloops and Kelowna, B.C., which adds to its existing Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Saskatoon offices.
Traditionally, Voda was known for being a value-added reseller who recently entered into the services market. Graycon, on the other hand, focused its efforts around IT consulting and specialized in infrastructure, network, managed services and security for SMBs.
Since the closing of the acquisition, Blackwell said the transition period has been busily underway.
“We’re moving quickly to only the Graycon name, but we’ll keep (Voda) wherever it makes the most sense,” he said. “For now, we’re branding some things as Graycon and Voda.”
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