Kian Capital Partners has sold MSP platform company The Purple Guys to another MSP platform company, PSP Capital-backed Ntiva for an undisclosed amount.
This deal represents another milestone in the evolution of the managed services mergers and acquisition market. Private equity companies' interest in MSPs grew after PE firm Court Square recapitalized MSP Thrive in 2021. Now platform companies are buying other platform companies.
This is technology M&A deal number 119 that ChannelE2E and MSSP Alert have covered so far in 2024. See more than 2,000 technology M&A deals for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020 listed here.
The Purple Guys, founded in 2020, is based in Shreveport, Louisiana. The company has 210 employees listed on LinkedIn. The Purple Guys' areas of expertise include disaster recovery, business continuity, cybersecurity training, IT services, managed IT support, cybersecurity monitoring, anti-spam, antivirus, and firewall.
Ntiva, Inc., founded in 2004, is based in McLean, Virginia. The company has 330 employees listed on LinkedIn. Ntiva’s areas of expertise include IT consulting, cloud computing, managed services, onsite and remote support, network design, procurement, exchange hosting, off-site backups, CIO services, disaster recovery, business continuity planning, cybersecurity, business telephony, and IT services.
Platform MSP M&A
As platform MSPs – managed services providers that buy up and consolidate other managed services providers – look towards an exit, this type of transaction will likely become more common.
This scenario underlines a strategic evolution in the MSP industry, where platform companies seek growth through acquisitions while also positioning themselves as attractive targets for further consolidation.
Executive Insights
Kevin Cook, CEO, The Purple Guys, commented:
"Since the beginning of our partnership, my leadership team and I have been aligned with Kian on our collective goal to build the leading IT managed services provider to the SMB community. I could not be more pleased with Kian’s partnership approach, collaboration, and support as we have expanded the business into new markets and accelerated growth across the organization."
Matt Levenson, Partner, Kian, said:
"From the outset of our partnership with Kevin and The Purple Guys team, our collective goal has been to build a leading MSP platform for the SMB market through a disciplined acquisition strategy and sustainable organic growth. As we look ahead, this combination with Ntiva establishes one of the largest pure-play MSPs serving the SMB space."
The Purple Guys M&A
The Purple Guys was founded through the merger of two IT firms, ECS and My IT, in January 2020; a deal that was backed by private equity firms Kian Capital and ParkSouth Ventures. FOCUS Investment Banking also advised on that deal.
Since then, the company has made a number of strategic acquisitions including: Accelerate, an Indianapolis, Indiana-based IT managed services provider; Kansas City, Kansas-based managed service provider The Purple Guys in February 2021 and Network Technologies in May of the same year. In January 2022, the company acquired Technology Pointe (Tech Pointe), an Austin, Texas-based IT managed services provider, for an undisclosed amount. The overall business then rebranded as The Purple Guys.
Cook says the company remains committed to its strategic growth plan.
