Upstack, backed by private equity firm Berskhire Partners, has acquired Legacy Solutions and Open Communications LLC, a telecommunications consulting firm and an IT consulting firm, respectively. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
These are technology M&A deals 597 and 598 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2021. See all technology M&A deals for 2021 and 2020 listed here.
Chicago-based Legacy Solutions specializes in forensic telecom expense audits and vendor management. The company, founded in 2003, originally was a VoIP communications play.
Utah-based Open Communications specializes in network, contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) and unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) for businesses ranging from SMBs to enterprises. The company was founded in 2012.
As part of each deal, Legacy Solutions co-founders Michael Sanders and Lauren Sanders and Open Communications founder Amanda Heinritz will all join Upstack as partners and equity stakeholders, the buyer said.
Upstack’s M&A Plays
Both deals fit into Upstack’s overall strategy to expand its end-to-end IT source/deploy/manage platform, according to the company. That strategy is supported by a $50 million equity investment from Berskhire Partners, which surfaced in April 2021.
Past deals have included:
- September 2021: Network and IT consulting firm idea! Communications Group and MOC4, a technology advisory firm.
- August 2021: CloudAdvise, a technology infrastructure advisory firm.
- July 2021: LanYap Networks, a strategic telecom and cloud solutions provider for medium and large businesses.
- July 2021: Consulting firm DataCenterAndColocation.com
- June 2021: Global technology infrastructure solutions firm Cloudwirx Inc
- May 2021: Telecommunications consulting firm M2 Enterprise Group
- April 2021: Global technology and telecommunications consulting firm Cloudnexion
Upstack Acquires Legacy Solutions
Christopher Trapp, CEO, Upstack, commented:
"We are excited to welcome Michael and Lauren Sanders of Legacy Solutions to the Upstack family. This father-daughter team has turned telecom expense auditing into trusted telecom consulting and management relationships. We hope to build on that legacy with even greater success."
Michael Sanders, co-founder, Legacy Solutions, said:
"Upstack's philosophy resonated with me; they want to grow together and share success with their advisors. They were also excited to welcome Lauren into the team to support my succession plan. The Upstack entrepreneurial spirit is invigorating and exciting. It's disruptive but will prove beneficial as the channel needs to evolve."
Upstack Acquires Open Communications
Trapp commented on the Open Communications deal:
"Open Communications is an exciting addition to Upstack. Amanda and her team have grown Open Communications steadily through their hard-earned relationships and vast referral network. Upstack gives them the platform and processes to grow even faster. We look forward to working together."
Amanda Heinritz, founder, Open Communications, said:
"Upstack not only had a clear understanding of what my business is and how much it’s worth but provided a game-changing technology platform that literally cuts out five steps of our sales process, saving my team tons of time. Every agent knows that getting quotes from providers can be time-consuming. Through Upstack’s platform, I can submit a deal and generate multiple quotes without having to have conversations with each supplier that I select to bid. All the information is provided to them through the platform, allowing those suppliers to turn around pricing quickly. From a customer experience standpoint, our clients will receive faster, higher-end support and more streamlined processes through Upstack.”
About Upstack’s Offering
Upstack originally positioned itself as a colocation marketplace, but has since pivoted to become a sales agency much like CloudAdvise. The company offers to help customers select and activate a variety of IT services including colocation, network connectivity, SD-WAN, unified communications, cloud, mobile, IoT, and business connectivity solutions.
Upstack’s platform allows business technology buyers and advisors to “design and compare cloud and internet infrastructure solutions. Its technology consists of a set of tools that automate many of the most time-consuming components of designing and sourcing IT solutions, saving its advisors and end-customers significant amounts of time relative to current modes of manual data extraction, input, comparison, and presentation,” the company says.
