Hilltop Consultants, a Top 100 Vertical Market MSP in the legal services sector, has acquired LANsultants -- which also focuses on the legal vertical, ChannelE2E has confirmed. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is part of Hilltop Consultants' larger plan to build the country’s best legal MSP, according to President Jim Turner.
Hilltop, which already has offices in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., gains a key position in the Philadelphia market. Discussions between the companies began in February 2018, and a formal announcement is expected on October 1, 2018. The deal has already been disclosed to employees and customers, Turner says.
The combined company will have roughly 101 employees -- 85 from Hilltop and 16 from LANsultants. The LANsultants founders and all employees -- representing 275 years of combined legal IT expertise -- are joining Hilltop Consultants, Turner says.
Both companies bring key expertise to the table. "Hilltop brings more legal IT services to LANsultants," says Turner. "The LANsultants clients will benefit from our security and cloud expertise. Hilltop Consultants benefits by bringing in a team of highly experienced legal technology experts that have deep ties to the Philadelphia and South Jersey legal communities."
Hilltop Consultants: In Acquisition Mode
This is the third acquisition that Hilltop Consultants has disclosed in recent months. The earlier deals -- involving SumaTech Strategic Integration Partners LLC -- are performing "very well," Turner says. "Our client and staff retention are far better than the industry average."
All of the acquisitions have been funded via a combination of cash flow and debt. Cogent Growth Partners is Hilltop Consultants' buyers-side M&A advisor. "They have done a great job of helping us negotiate and finance these deals," he says. "They worked with us on Strategic Integration Partners, Sumatech, and now LANsultants."
Cogent advised on at least 60 M&A deals involving IT service providers as of 2016, according to the company at that time.
Legal IT Services, MSP Market Consolidation
Legal services is one of five verticals that larger MSPs will ultimately dominate, Continuum CEO Michael George predicted at this week's Navigate conference in Boston. Over the next few years, George expects 20 percent of U.S.-based MSPs to dominate 80 percent of the available U.S. managed services revenue pie.
Clearly, Hilltop Consultants is striving to be one of those market leaders -- with a specific focus on the legal vertical.
