Kaseya Acquires Spanning: Microsoft Office 365 Cloud Backup

Kaseya has acquired Spanning Cloud Apps, which provides SaaS backup for Microsoft Office 365, Google G Suite and Salesforce. The deal is the latest example of private equity's strong influence on the MSP software market. It also reinforces the Kaseya IT Complete strategy -- which strives to give MSPs an integrated, revenue-generating system for delivering end-to-end managed services.

ChannelE2E in September 2018 speculated that Kaseya would acquire Spanning (second to last paragraph here). It sounds like Kaseya has actually owned the business since early 2018, but a formal announcement didn't arrive until now. An emerging relationship surfaced in April 2018, when Kaseya VSA gained tight integrations with Spanning.

Spanning's headquarters will remain in Austin, Texas. The SaaS backup provider will operate as a stand-alone, independent business-unit under Kaseya. The goal: Balance the best of Spanning's entrepreneurial expertise, while providing the technology in an integrated way to the entire Kaseya customer base, according to CEO Fred Voccola.

Private Equity Parent: The dance between Kaseya and Spanning isn't surprising, considering they have had the same private equity owner for more than a year. Insight Venture Partners acquired Spanning in 2017 and Kaseya in 2013. The two software companies have since been held in separate Insight investment funds, but now Spanning moves under the Kaseya umbrella, within the Insight fund that manages Kaseya.

This is the second time in recent months that Insight has combined another of its existing portfolio companies with Kaseya. The earlier deal involved Unitrends, a hybrid cloud backup and disaster recovery specialist. And it sounds like Unitrends and Spanning also are gaining some integrations.

Kaseya Acquires Spanning: MSP Implications

Spanning Cloud Apps, founded in 2010, has had multiple owners. EMC acquired the business in 2014. And then Dell EMC sold Spanning to Insight Venture Partners in 2017.

Notable Spanning rivals include:

Spanning is now part of the larger Kaseya data protection portfolio -- which also features:

Spanning's business apparently has been performing well. The company is generating 50 percent year-over-year growth (in terms of revenue, I believe). The SaaS backup platform is used by roughly 10,000 customers and MSPs -- though exact MSP figures are undisclosed. In 2017, Spanning backed up more than 110 billion items.

Kaseya Mergers and Acquisitions: MSP Implications

Kaseya's M&A deals have multiple implications for the company and MSPs -- many of whom are seeking to consolidate their IT and business management platforms.

Fred Voccola, CEO of Kaseya, has overseen multiple M&A deals since joining the company in July 2015. The scorecard includes:

The overall Kaseya product portfolio now spans:

Voccola has floated the idea of Kaseya eventually pursuing an IPO. Company watchers (myself included) think a company sale to a strategic buyer in the next nine to 18 months or so is more likely. In the meantime, Voccola is focused on scaling the business both organically and through M&A.