Thrive, a Top 100 Vertical Market MSP backed by private equity, has acquired BizCompass, a managed services provider in Portland, Maine area that supports customers across northern New England. This is the fourth acquisition in the past 18 months for Thrive, which has returned to growth mode under private equity ownership.
Thrive CEO Rob Stephenson offered this prepared statement about the deal:
“Thrive is pleased to welcome BizCompass, their customers and employees to our growing portfolio of MSP partnerships in the Northeast United States. This transaction is another win-win for both companies and most importantly, our customers, as BizCompass will become the technical operations center for Thrive’s Northern New England region."
Stephenson hinted that Thrive was working on the acquisition during a Kaseya MSP M&A Symposium earlier this year, though he didn't reveal the seller's name at the time.
New Roles, Responsibilities
BizCompass CEO Tony Correale and CTO John Burghardt both join Thrive as part of the deal.
Burghardt now oversees Northern New England technical operations while working on Thrive’s five national data center and cloud footprints. Correale continues leading business development in Northern New England and he is joined by Rob Nevins, a Maine technology veteran of more than 18 years.
In a prepared statement, Correale said:
“On behalf of everyone at BizCompass, John and I are very excited about this opportunity to join one of the largest and most respected technology service firms. The engineering depth, vast amount of technical and financial resources and advanced Cloud and Cyber Security capabilities that Thrive will be able to offer our customers are the driving factors for Tony and I to join this winning team."
Thrive itself has been acquired and sold multiple times over the past decade.
Thrive Networks: MSP Business Acceleration
A key turning point came in December 2016, when M/C Partners acquired Thrive and tucked another MSP into the deal. More recently, Thrive promoted Marc Pantoni to president and Michael Gray to chief technology officer (CTO).
So far, M/C Partners sounds impressed and upbeat about the MSP's overall business. Gillis Cashman, Thrive chairman and managing partner at M/C Partners, said:
“Thrive continues to successfully execute on their acquisition strategy. The BizCompass deal solidifies their status as an industry leader by introducing the Thrive portfolio of Cloud, Networking and Cyber Security next generation managed services to Northern New England."
