In another sign of consolidation in the Canadian solution provider community as the industry adjusts to a services-led sales model, Quartet Service Inc. announced plans Monday to acquire KLM Solutions. Both companies are based in the Toronto-area; terms were not disclosed.
KLM Solutions was No. 99 on CDN‘s Top 100 Solution Providers list in 2010, with revenue of between $5 million and $10 million, building a strong specialization in virtualization while representing vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM. Quartet provides Internet, telephony and data services to mid-tier companies in the Toronto area, and made a splash in 2007 when it picked-up much of the consulting team from NexInnovations.
In an e-mail Robert Bracey, Quartet’s president and CEO, confirmed the deal is expected to close in two weeks. He added while the combination of a services business and a solution provider may seem like a strange fit, this deal is really all about cloud computing.
“Cloud computing is real and here to stay, but so is hardware, which is not going to all of a sudden disappear. Hardware’s death is greatly exaggerated,” said Bracey.
Companies aren’t moving their entire infrastructure to the cloud, he added. The on premise equipment plays remains an important piece of the puzzle. Bracey said the combined strengths of Quartet’s service experience and KLM’s product expertise are a perfect match.
“You might say this is a marriage made in the cloud, or, more specifically, the hybrid cloud,” said Bracey. “We’re developing some creative in-house and hybrid cloud models that accelerate the traditional benefits of cloud computing.”
It wasn’t just a marriage made in the cloud, but also at the VentureTech Network, distributor Ingram Micro‘s reseller organization of which both Quartet and KLM are active members and through which Bracey and KLM president Kent Leckie began discussing this acquisition almost two years ago. Bracey is VentureTech’s Canadian president.
“With KLM’s long-standing partnerships with manufacturers and Quartet’s service-oriented business model and its investment in a sophisticated private cloud, this merger just kept making more and more sense with each discussion,” said Bracey. “We see our current clients utilizing KLM’s hardware and project expertise, while at the same time KLM’s clients leaning on Quartet’s experience to help them move towards cloud computing.”
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