The biggest acquisition in the Canadian channel of 2015 has been officially completed. The entire sales and services operations of Metafore are now on the Compugen platform including order management services. The Metafore name goes away and most of the employees were retained by Compugen. Company CEO Harry Zarek told CDN that most of the details of this deal will be kept in-house as it was a private transaction.
There are two aspects of the Metafore deal that really excited Zarek: a high level of quality customers and experienced people and Compugen acquired them all in one transaction. The combined company now employs more than 1,500 and is expected to generate in excess of $500 million in annual revenue in 2016.
Compugen place No. 3 in CDN’s Top 100 Solution Providers list with revenues between $400 to $450 million.
“This gives us access to a great set of customers and a strong sales and services organization. This is a very strategic acquisition as it adds strong capabilities to Compugen,” Zarek said in an interview with CDN.
The people of Metafore was “absolutely critical” for Zarek in this deal, he said. For Compugen to deliver on its breath of services goals trained people are a must. With Metafore Compugen does not have to go through the time consuming process of training people.
“I believe this will give us a competitive advantage in the marketplace because now we have staff with a broad and deep range of expertise across the country,” he added.
The Metafore acquisition also provided Zarek with a unique opportunity to acquire a rival solution provider he had a lot of respect for.
“In some respects we are all brothers. We can fight like crazy and then be the best of friends. I have a high degree of respect for those people who have succeeded in this business. It’s professional competition where people will compete like crazy on the field like in sports but after sit down with you and have a drink and share in the camaraderie,” he said.
Zarek game a lot of the credit in this transaction to Harry Hart, the legendary leader of the Hartco Group. Zarek said of Hart that he is an innovator with a high amount of integrity. “He did what was right for his organization.”