All Covered: 10 Managed Services Acquisitions In 12 Months?
All Covered, a $45 million managed services specialist operating in 20 cities across the U.S., is preparing to make yet another acquisition — marking the 10th time in roughly 12 months that All Covered has made an M&A move in the managed services market, according to a company spokesman. Here’s a quick look at the strategy.
According to the spokesman, All Covered targets customers with 10 to 100 employees. And so far, All Covered has about 2,000 customers across the U.S. On the acquisition front, the All Covered says:
“We’ve been on a roll recently, having smaller competitors come and join forces with All Covered. In the last 12 months we’ve integrated the clients and employees from nine such companies, ranging in size from 3 to 35 employees…We’ll have another one to announce shortly.”
So, what type of business does All Covered typically acquire? One recent example involves MainBrain of Baltimore, Md. That deal, completed in January 2010 but announced in February 2010, allowed All Covered to expand its presence in the Baltimore, Delaware and Northern Virginia areas, according to a press release.
This joining of companies greatly increases All Covered’s presence in the Baltimore, Delaware and Northern Virginia areas. MainBrain’s many clients add to the list of over 2,000 All Covered clients located in 20 other major metropolitan markets nationwide.
In the days ahead, I hope to connect with All Covered Chief Operating Officer Todd Croteau to learn more about the company’s M&A strategy.
Money Matters
In the meantime, it remains difficult to describe what type of valuations MSPs are fetching. As you may recall, I’ve blogged multiple times stating that MSPs seem to be selling for about 2X their annual recurring revenue, and 1X traditional revenue. Using that formula, an MSP with $2 million in recurring revenue and $3 million in standard revenue would fetch about $7 million (that is, $2 million X 2, added to $3 million X 1).
Still, plenty of readers are debating me on the valuation topic. One reader tells me my formula is far too high — with MSPs not fetching such a high price premium. Others say MSPs should focus more on EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) to help compute a proper valuation.
Either way, I’ll ask All Covered’s Croteau for his thoughts when we connect.
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That formula is about double what I’ve seen other people use, but I don’t have any firsthand experience yet.
It’s interesting to see that AllCovered has turned up the acquisition engine again; it seemed like they went quiet for a long time after their initial acquisition spree many years ago.
Mike
http://smbitpros.com
I have been following the posts about acquisitions closely. For a straight MSP to get more than 50% of it’s total annual revenue would surprise me. If there is no IP or assets involved it wouldn’t make much sense, unless of course there are operating or marketing synergies.
Whenever I read press releases where purchase prices aren’t disclosed I assume it was a troubled firm that got $0 out of the deal besides payroll stability or that the deal fetched such a small amount no one had anything to brag about.
Andy Myers
Fraction CIO, Consultant
http://www.andymyers.net
I agree with Andy. For a firm to get 7 Million on a 3 Million revenue business, they would need to have a net of 1.5 – 1.7 Million. I would have to then dount the longevity of such a high margin service offering. More normal would be 10 – 20 % net on the high side putting an eval of 1.3 million would be more in line which usually works out to 1 year GP or 1 year residual revenue.
Alex Webb
CEO – SSI Solutions
Mike, Andy, Alex: Thanks for shedding some more light on a tricky discussion. Generally speaking, I understand why privately held companies frequently don’t disclose the Mamp;A purchase price or multiple. But yes, a portion of the deals likely involve no money changing hands… I”ll keep the points you’ve shared in mind as we track additional Mamp;A activity.
-jp