https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • MSP 501 Rankings
    • NextGen 101 Rankings
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Channel Futures 20: Top Tech Providers
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2023 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Technology Advisor 101 (TA 101)
    • Channel Leaders Lists
  • Events
    • Back
    • 2023 Call for Speakers
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • MSP 501 Rankings
    • NextGen 101 Rankings
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Channel Futures 20: Top Tech Providers
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2023 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Technology Advisor 101 (TA 101)
    • Channel Leaders Lists
  • Events
    • Back
    • 2023 Call for Speakers
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Agents
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • Channel Partners Events
 Channel Futures

Mergers and Acquisitions


Upstack Buys Another Agency, Signs Direct Supplier Agreement

  • Written by James Anderson
  • January 25, 2022
Upstack also landed a supplier agreement with bot mitigation provider Netacea.

Upstack is adding Texium to its growing list of acquired partner firms.

Florida-based consulting firm Texium (branded as teXium) brings 3,000 customer locations in 29 countries to Upstack’s base. Chief revenue officer Michael Martin and CEO Michael Scharf are taking on the roles of partners and managing directors as a result.

“I’m excited for our customers to continue to receive the best of the best in solutions and service, now with an augmented back office,” Scharf said. “Upstack has an exciting vision for the future, and we are glad to be along on the journey.”

Martin, Michael_Upstack

Upstack’s Michael Martin

Upstack did not say how much it paid for Texium. Upstack is also taking on six of Texium’s employees.

Scharf, Michael_Upstack

Upstack’s Michael Scharf

Upstack has acquired upward of 15 partner firms in the past year. The New York-based company is harnessing a $50 million private equity investment from Berkshire Partners and a $100 million line of credit from MidCap Financial and Morgan Stanley Private Credit.

Texium leadership fielded different offers for an acquisition. Those options included a merger, bringing on a chief operating officer or selling the business. They viewed Upstack as an opportunity to stay in the business and continue working with their customers. Agent owners who take on a role as partner at Upstack become equity stakeholders.

“Succeeding in this business is all about relationships, and that is exactly why we were drawn to the Upstack family. Upstack sees the value in customer relationships we’ve built, and our team is looking forward to continuing to nurture those relationships under the Upstack umbrella,” Scharf said.

Background

Martin and Scharf founded the agency in 2009 after working at carriers. Both are both alumni of US LEC, which Paetec bought in 2007. Windstream went on to buy Paetec in 2011. Martin started his telco career at Deltacom and also worked for Cable and Wireless. In addition, Scharf worked at AT&T for eight years.

Keep up with the latest channel-impacting mergers and acquisitions in our M&A roundup. Then check out what we thought were the biggest mergers and acquisitions of 2021!

They could offer their customers multivendor solutions as a result of starting their own agency.

“We wanted to offer our customers the best product at the best price and also install it to ensure it works. We became advocates for our customers with service providers,” Martin said.

The agency targets mid- to large enterprises. It also provided free consulting services, according to its website.

“We’re proud to bring aboard the teXium team,” Upstack CEO Christopher Trapp said. “The experience the teXium team has gained over the last decade serving more than 3,000 customer locations around the world will be a tremendous asset to the Upstack team.”

Trapp, Christopher_Upstack

Upstack’s Christopher Trapp

Direct Partnership

Bot detection and mitigation provider Netacea earlier this month announced a partnership with Upstack.

Kirk Horton, Netacea’s newly hired vice president of channels and partners, said savvy partners can grow their revenue in a big way by tackling the issue of bot attacks.

“In my two decades of building channel programs, I’ve never seen such a significant opportunity for partners, whether they are advisory agencies, managed service providers or managed security service providers, value-added resellers or independent consultants,” Horton said.

The move represents a channel partner expanding its cybersecurity portfolio and a cybersecurity vendor leveraging the agent channel.

“As the world’s fastest- growing technology advisory platform, we need a full suite of cybersecurity solutions so that businesses of all sizes and types can count on us to match them with the best solutions for their needs. Our partnership with Netacea, and the ability to include its solution as a premier component of our comprehensive security portfolio, is a win for our customers as well as for Upstack,” said Nicholas Caruso, Upstack’s head of global channels and alliances.

It’s also notable that Upstack is not running the partnership through a technology solutions brokerage. Upstack confirmed that it is running a direct agreement with Netacea.

Trapp told Channel Futures last April that Upstack would be a customer-facing agency. His team considered a business model that mediated between suppliers and sellers. However, they preferred the direct-selling route.

“We looked at the industry and said, ‘Wow, the total addressable market for direct agents is about five times the size of the [TSB] industry and about a thousand times more fragmented,” he said.

Read our Q&A with Caruso to learn more about the partner firms Upstack has acquired.

Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email James Anderson or connect with him on LinkedIn.
Tags: Agents MSPs VARs/SIs Strategy Mergers and Acquisitions Security

Most Recent


  • how to sell more
    Learn How to Sell More Solutions to Clients
    A conversation with MSP Marketing Edge's Paul Green.
  • Partner Program
    Coalesce Partners Gain Revamped Partner Program with Expanded Training, Resources
    Coalesce's data transformation solution is built exclusively for Snowflake Data Cloud.
  • ransomware attacks
    Survey: Backups Are Prime Targets for Ransomware Attacks, Most Remain Exposed
    Veeam’s 2023 Ransomware Trends Report shows many pay ransom but don’t always recover.
  • call for speakers
    Channel Futures Leadership Summit Call for Speakers Open
    Speaker applications for “The New Style of Leadership” are open until July 3.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Forklift
    Rise with SAP Gives Major Lift to Cloud Revenues, SAP S/4HANA Migrations
  • acquire
    PSP Capital to Buy Ntiva, Deal Said to Spur Job Growth
  • Time to Thrive
    Calian Group will Acquire Computex, Business to 'Thrive' Under New Ownership
  • Mergers and acquisitions
    New MSP Mergers Expand IT Landscape for SMB, Commercial Sectors

Upcoming Events

View all

Channel Partners Europe

June 13, 2023 - June 14, 2023

Channel Futures Leadership Summit

October 30, 2023 - November 2, 2023

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

March 11, 2024 - March 14, 2024

Galleries

View all

Survey: Backups Are Prime Targets for Ransomware Attacks, Most Remain Exposed

May 26, 2023

Faces of the Partner: 6 New Tech Advisors Entering the Channel

May 26, 2023

Broadcom-VMware, Alibaba Cloud, Red Hat, Google Cloud: A Hefty Roundup

May 24, 2023

Industry Perspectives

View all

Dell Technologies World: Dell Apex Expanded Across On-Premises, Cloud and Edge

May 22, 2023

Identity Is Increasingly Valuable – and Targeted

May 18, 2023

Gaining a Competitive Advantage through AV Managed Services

May 10, 2023

Webinars

View all

From Problem to Profit: Mastering the Science of Selling Using Business Outcomes

May 9, 2023

Meet the 2023 Channel Futures Channel Influencers

April 13, 2023

DE&I Dialogue: How the Right DE&I Initiatives Can Propel Your Business

April 5, 2023

White Papers

View all

6 UCaaS Reseller Challenges and How Real World Businesses Solved Them

February 1, 2023

Frost Radar: North American UCaaS Market, 2022

February 1, 2023

The Complete Guide to White-Label UCaaS for Reseller Success

February 1, 2023

Channel Futures TV

View all

Coffee with Craig and James Episode No. 123: MartinWolf M&A Advisors, CP Expo Preview

UScellular Takes On Rivals with Partner Program Simplicity

April 21, 2023

OpenText Simplifying Deal Registration, Doubling Down on MDF

April 21, 2023

Everything-as-a-Service: CloudBlue Touts Critical Customer Transition

April 18, 2023

Twitter

ChannelFutures

Paul Green @msp_voice will help MSPs gain more #customers and #sales at @ChannelEurop June 13.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

May 26, 2023
ChannelFutures

.@coalesceIO unveils revamped partner program. #datatransformation dlvr.it/SphJm4 https://t.co/s7fYAVmFGD

May 26, 2023
ChannelFutures

.@Veeam #Ransomeware survey: backups are not adequately protected, 85% suffered at least 1 attack in past year… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

May 26, 2023
ChannelFutures

.@MSPSummit call for speakers is open now through July 3. The theme for this year’s summit is “The New Style of Lea… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

May 26, 2023
ChannelFutures

Channel Futures interviewed six individuals who started an agency in the last two years. dlvr.it/SpgV6l https://t.co/JXKhJcw31A

May 26, 2023
ChannelFutures

Channel Futures interviewed six individuals who started an agency in the last two years. dlvr.it/SpgTQg https://t.co/7eIp0XgwQ2

May 26, 2023
ChannelFutures

Channel Futures interviewed six individuals who started an agency in the last two years. dlvr.it/Spg7JZ https://t.co/ETaeFysCYO

May 26, 2023
ChannelFutures

.@VMware's CFO taking new job at @Workday, board member taking over CFO role. #cloud dlvr.it/SpdNND https://t.co/Nnb1ahZdNG

May 25, 2023

MSP 501

The industry's largest and most comprehensive partner awards program.

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Galleries

Educational slide shows and images from live events.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Events
  • Telecoms.com
  • MSP 501
  • Black Hat
  • IoT World Today
  • Omdia

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X