Park Place Technologies, a data center maintenance provider, now has at least two private equity backers. Indeed, established owner GTCR has sold a stake in Park Place to Charlesbank Capital Partners of Boston. Financial terms were not disclosed, but it sounds like both GTCR and Charlesbank have stakes in the data center maintenance specialist.
Park Place of Mayfield Heights, Ohio, manages post-warranty maintenance for storage, server, and networking hardware. The company claims to service over 16,000 customers in more than 140 countries and has over 1,200 employees.
GTCR acquired Park Place in 2015. Since then, the data center specialist has grown its salesforce and technical capabilities, largely through 11 acquisitions. Among the more recent deals: Park Place acquired MCSA Group Limited in April 2019, providing the buyer with a larger footprint in the United Kingdom.
Fast forward to the investment from Charlesbank, and Park Place CEO Chris Adams had this reaction:
"GTCR has been a highly strategic partner supportive of our growth efforts in recent years and we are excited to continue our partnership. We are thrilled to add a new partner in Charlesbank and value their expertise and insight in technology and data center infrastructure. We look forward to working with both firms who share our vision and commitment to scaling the business further. More importantly, we look forward to continuing to provide our customers with exceptional service while selectively identifying acquisitions to bolster Park Place's position in the market."
Adams assumed the CEO mantel in January 2019, succeeding Ed Kenty who remains as Park Place's chairman.
David Donnini, managing director at GTCR, also commented:
"We want to congratulate the entire Park Place team on their accomplishments over the last three and a half years. Since we partnered with Chris and the team, Park Place has achieved impressive growth through organic investments in its salesforce and product offering and through acquisitions to create a leading global TPM provider. We believe strongly in Park Place's future and look forward to executing on the continued opportunities."
Ryan Carroll, managing director at Charlesbank, added:
"Park Place is a leader in the resilient TPM market, with a diverse and growing customer base, a consistent and predictable cash-generative business model, and numerous opportunities for equity value creation. We know the GTCR team well from a prior shared investment and are delighted to partner with them on this opportunity. We look forward to working with Chris Adams and his talented management team in the company's next chapter of growth."
Charlesbank is a well-known investor in the IT services market. In 2015, the private equity firm joined with M/C Partners to acquire Ensono, a managed IT services provider (MSP). Also, Charlesbank and GTCR bid to acquire former CenturyLink data centers in 2016.
