Velocity Technology Solutions has acquired fellow cloud-centric MSP Mercury Technology Group, a key Oracle partner that boasts more than 100 enterprise customers across the U.S. and Europe. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Velocity, which is best known for its Velocity Cloud Application Management Platform, is privately held and bills itself as the world’s largest pure-play cloud services provider (CSP). The company says adding Mercury’s focus on the Oracle applications suite to its solutions set will help expand its position.
“We believe Mercury’s expertise in Oracle solutions will significantly enhance our portfolio of Oracle services, further setting us apart as the world-leader in Cloud Managed Services,” Keith Angell, President and CEO of Velocity said in a prepared statement. “Combined with our SAP, Infor and Healthcare services, orchestrated over global hybrid cloud environments, the Mercury acquisition extends our ERP Cloud Services leadership, delivering even more value to our customers around the world.”
Investing in Oracle capabilities remains a priority for Velocity, according to Angell. “Mercury’s proven Oracle leadership and innovative technological approach are an immediate benefit to Velocity’s customer and prospect base, including advances in OVM, High-Availability Performance, Disaster Recovery and Security Solutions,” Angell said.
Mercury customers will immediately have access to Velocity’s hybrid and public cloud options, technical expertise, expanded cloud services, and ERP footprint.
Oracle Cloud Transition Drives Partner Mergers
Like many enterprise-class IT companies, Oracle has been shifting from traditional hardware and software sales toward cloud-centric services -- particularly SaaS suites, though the company also offers IaaS and PaaS capabilities. Oracle has had some targeted layoffs amid the transition toward cloud services. The company is expected to announce quarterly results -- including a cloud progress report -- later today (Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017).
The Oracle Partner Network (OPN) has about 25,000 members, including 2,600 unique partners on the Oracle Partner Network Cloud Program. Some of those partners are pursuing M&A to help deepen their cloud-centric applications expertise. Recent Oracle partner M&A deals have included:
- BV Investments acquiring Apps Associates, an IT services company focused on Oracle, NetSuite, AWS and Salesforce deployments.
- RSM UK acquired First Hosted Limited, bringing together two of the world’s most successful Oracle NetSuite partners.
- NTT purchased Secure-24 Intermediate Holdings to secure its Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft solutions.
- Speridian and Xelleration merged a few months ago.
Back at Oracle, the company recently introduced a new incentive plan for partners, Oracle Cloud Excellence Implementer (CEI), to reward partners that demonstrate expertise and customer satisfaction in delivering Oracle’s services.
