Jeskell To Again Become IBM Federal VAR

A team of investors has acquired solution provider Jeskell from its original owner, FusionStorm, and are returning it to its roots as an independent federal government solution provider.

San Francisco-based solution provider FusionStorm on Tuesday said it was selling its Jeskell business. Financial details of the contract were not released.

The investors include two of the principals of CAS Severn, a Laurel, Md.-based solution provider which does about one-third of its business with the federal government, along with a third person whose identity has not yet been made public.

One of those principals, Carson Soule, CEO of CAS Severn, said Jeskell will be run as a completely independent company, and will return to its original business model with a focus on bringing IBM products and services to the federal government. His partner from CAS Severn is Doug Gerstmyer, president of CAS Severn

"Jeskell will be a free-standing company," Soule said. "As of today, we've hired everybody we think we'll hire. We have the entire federal team. So it's the same old Jeskell to IBM, and the same old Jeskell to the customers."

Next: Getting All Of Jeskell

With the acquisition, the investors got the Jeskell label, logo, website, and phone numbers, Soule said. "So from the customer point of view, we'll have the same operations."

The new Jeskell also includes Greg Lefeler, who was and will continue to be the company's vice president of sales. Lefeler and the third investor will run day-to-day operations at Jeskell while Soule and the other CAS Severn principal will act more as consultants while continuing to run CAS Severn.

FusionStorm acquired Jeskell four years ago this month. At that time, FusionStorm was one of Sun Microsystems' largest partners, while Jeskell was IBM's biggest government solution provider.

Soule said the acquisition of Jeskell gives him and his partners an opportunity to maintain one of the best names in the government IT market. And, he said, if that means Jeskell and CAS Severn occasionally compete with each other for a Federal contract, so be it.

"We'll occasionally run into each other," he said. "And that's a good thing. It keeps their guys sharp our guys sharp, and gives the government good prices."

Next: Cashing In With Jeskell To Settle A Lawsuit

The sale of Jeskell had been expected in the wake of San Diego-based TIG's successful lawsuit against FusionStorm as a way for FusionStorm to raise the cash needed to settle that lawsuit.

The lawsuit ended in August when the two reached an out-of-court settlement after a California Superior Court jury found FusionStorm liable for misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of loyalty.

FusionStorm at the time agreed to pay TIG nearly $11 million to resolve the case, covering all damages, expenses and legal fees. The date of the settlement was extended a number of times in order to give FusionStorm time to gather the resources to pay those costs.

Carson declined to comment on whether the FusionStorm lawsuit had any impact on the timing and the acquisition price for Jeskell.

Rick Whiting contributed to this article.