Update – mindSHIFT CEO: Why We Acquired Alpheon
Why did mindSHIFT acquire Alpheon, and will mindSHIFT make more managed services acquisitions this year? I posed both questions (and a few others) to mindSHIFT CEO Paul Chisholm (pictured) a few minutes ago. Here are Chisholm’s replies.
Our phone conversation covered the following points…
Q: Amid a sea of potential acquisition targets, why did mindSHIFT acquire Alpheon?
Chisholm: “There are two primary answers. It allows us to expand in the Southeast, and more importantly, about 60 percent of Alpheon’s business is health care. They’re not just a classic MSP. They thoroughly understand EMR [electronic medical records] applications.”
Q: Your press release about the acquisition emphasized your cloud focus. How real is the cloud in your business?
Chisholm: “First let’s define cloud computing. It’s not traditional hosting. Cloud involves our applications in our data centers, like our legal applications, available to customers. We’ve been doing cloud for about seven years. About 40 percent of our recurring revenue comes from cloud services. That’s substantial compared to anyone else.”
Q: Rumor has it mindSHIFT is nearing at least one other acquisition?
Chisholm: “No comment. But how about this: We’ll call you if we ever do another acquisition.”
Q: Are you hearing from more VARs and MSPs looking to sell their businesses?
Chisholm: “In the last couple of years it’s become more difficult for some players to scale and grow. So we certainly hear from lots of companies. But our strategy is not a land-grab strategy.”
Alpheon’s Perspectives
On the flip side of the conversation, why did Alpheon sell to mindSHIFT? Alpheon CEO Greg Donovan shares perspectives in this blog post from earlier today.
Next Moves
In a potential deal not involving mindSHIFT, MSPmentor is expecting at least one other MSP-related acquisition, potentially later this week. Stay tuned.
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