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"Change is inevitable. Growth is optional."

-John Maxwell

January 20,2017

SMS Systems Maintenance Services Merges with Curvature

Financial Information
  • Not Disclosed
Transaction Facts
  • Third-party IT services giants Systems Maintenance Services (SMS) and Curvature announced yesterday that they will merge.
  • The resulting company, SMS | Curvature, will be a global IT solution provider with more than $500 million in combined revenue and over 2,000 employees.
  • Private equity firm Partners Group, which acquired SMS in August, will become majority shareholder at the conclusion of the transaction.
  • The transaction has been approved by the leadership teams of both companies, and is expected to close in February 2017.
Broad Offerings Create Significant Revenue Opportunities
  • Hot, Hot, Hot: Third-party IT and lifecycle services have been in the spotlight as customers look for affordable providers to service broad portfolios of aging IT equipment. Often these transactions fill specific coverage areas, as with Park Place’s recent acquisition of data center support services provider Ardent Support Technologies.
  • Grow, Grow, Grow Your Boat: In other instances, the priority is to achieve scale. With this transaction, SMS and Curvature both acquire significant new customer sets and partner relationships, in the process becoming more than five times larger than competitor Park Place (according to Curvature CEO Mike Sheldon in an interview with CRN).
  • Private Equity As Accelerant: Private equity has long been active in this space, and their resources have been key to unlocking growth and performance. Sheldon cited Curvature’s relationship with Quad-C as a “strong partnership” in a 2016 interview with martinwolf, while Partners Group partner Joel Schwartz cites the newly combined firm’s potential to be a “category killer” in the press release announcing the merger.
For more information about this transaction, click here to read the press release.
martinwolf was not the advisor in this transaction.
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