An investment group featuring Cognizant Technology Solutions and Capgemini veteran Larry Gordon is seeking to acquire an IT services firm that specializes in security. The twist: Gordon and his investor peers haven't yet pinpointed a specific IT services provider to acquire. Hence, this blog entry to alert potential sellers and/or entrepreneurs seeking their next stage of security business growth.
Ideally, the IT services firm will not be a product reseller. Instead, it will specialize in IT security services -- perhaps in such areas as endpoint, network, application, data and/or identity security, Gordon tells ChannelE2E. Also, the company should have at least one or two blue chip companies within its customer base, though blue chips don't need to dominate the customer base or revenue stream. The idea is to prove your company understands and offers enterprise-class IT services.
Gordon and his investment team are pretty flexible on location and headcount -- seeking a potential IT service provider as small as five people or as large as a few hundred employees.
Back to the Future
Gordon has launched, built, expanded and sold a range of IT services and technology companies over the past three decades. We first met around 1999, when he was with Cognizant and I was at Ziff Davis Media.
In some cases, the current IT services market (particularly the security wave) reminds Gordon of Cognizant's early days, when customers were beginning to explore follow-the-sun offshore software development and IT support. Fast forward to present day, and demand for outsourced IT security services is seeing similar growth. The reason? Most businesses don't have the time to hire, build and maintain seasoned IT security staffs on their own. A shortage of IT security talent further complicates those efforts.
I don't know Gordon's timing for a potential acquisition. Nor do I know the other investors involved in the potential pursuit. But the journey to find a potential acquisition target has begun. Gordon is located in New Jersey, but the acquisition target doesn't have to be located there...
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