Advisory — Buy-Side
Software & Tech
Alan Chettiar
Somant Maraj
Background
F12.net, a leading Canadian Managed Service Provider (MSP), was executing on a roll-up acquisition strategy. Most of their prior acquisitions had been in Western Canada, and the company wanted to add to its presence in Ontario, specifically, the GTA area. FirePower's M&A Advisory team was engaged to find suitable targets.
Solution
FirePower’s M&A Advisory team worked with F12 to understand their acquisition strategy, then built a list of 240+ targets and crafted a go-to-market strategy that emphasized F12’s corporate culture, growth and financial strength. Culture was a key selling point in the MSP space, which is dominated by younger business owners.
Amongst a number of high-quality prospects, FirePower identified Apps on Tap, a provider of fully managed IT solutions using both traditional MSP and next-generation cloud services delivery model. This company was of particular interest as it was a straightforward, synergistic addition to F12’s Ontario operations.
Apps on Tap was ultimately convinced of the benefits of joining the F12 family versus trying to grow alone. F12 acquired Apps on Tap in May,2018, thus taking a significant step forward in developing its Ontario presence.
We engaged FirePower to support our acquisition strategy: expanding verticals, adding scale to operations and strengthening F12’s presence nationally. As it turned out, we couldn’t have asked for a more hardworking team. FirePower’s perseverance building relationships with prospective targets, either directly or through their advisors, helped create awareness of F12’s interest in acquiring strong companies across Canada.
