MSP M&A, IT Glue Have Their Day at Kaseya Connect 2024
Kaseya Connect "pre-show" day includes M&A discussions for MSPs, and IT Glue product news.
![Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola on stage at Kaseya Connect 2024 in Las Vegas, April 29. Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola on stage at Kaseya Connect 2024 in Las Vegas, April 29.](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt6618bdca515f922e/6631071499a4b82c3de650c4/Fred_Voccola_Kaseya_IT_Connect_2024.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola on stage at Kaseya Connect 2024 in Las Vegas, April 29.
Panelists at a Kaseya Connect “Bark Tank” session that evaluated a fictitious MSP as an acquisition target, said they expect AI will be a game changer for MSPs and their valuations.
“I think it is going to change MSPs,” said Sydney Hockett, VP of M&A for holding company Evergreen. “All of our criteria and how we look at things will shift over time. I would say we've already gone through that as we look at the move from private to public cloud, the uptake of cybersecurity, things like that change the profile of the business and the metrics we're looking at. I think that will happen again; there probably be some change around the margin profile we get comfortable with.”
Brent Whitfield, director of equity partnerships at New Charter Technologies (No. 47 on the 2023 Channel Futures MSP 501, said a lot of MSPs are concerned about getting AI right.
“For the MSPs I talk to, it’s all about AI,” he said. “They’re not sure they can embrace the right technologies at the right time to be competitive as they're trying to handle security and cloud and digital transformation. And now there's this AI thing. We’re spending time with every vendor around, [saying] ‘What are we doing with AI? And how can we use it to our advantage safely? How can we help our clients use it?’”
Panelists also said they see AI as an opportunity for MSPs.