Logicalis Buys 21-Person Microsoft Communications Powerhouse

New York-based Logicalis has purchased a 21-person Microsoft Gold partner specializing in unified communications and voice from its parent company in an effort to turbocharge its education and health-care practices.

Logicalis, No. 27 on the CRN 2015 Solution Provider 500, said its acquisition of The Woodlands, Texas-based Via Group will provide greater flexibility in supporting unified communication solutions across on-premise, hosted and hybrid environments.

Combining Via's collaboration expertise with Logicalis' managed services capabilities will enable the company to deliver hosted, subscription-based solutions to clients looking to completely outsource responsibility for installing and managing business communications infrastructure, according to the companies.

[Related: Logicalis Turns To Australia, Buys Cloud, Data Center Services Provider]

"We felt it was in the best interest of both of the organizations to formally bring Logicalis and Via Group together," Vince DeLuca, CEO of Logicalis U.S., told CRN.

Terms of the deal, which was revealed Wednesday, were not disclosed. Via Group generated $7.17 million of revenue in 2015, according to an annual report by its parent company.

Like Logicalis, Via Group is owned by publicly traded IT conglomerate Datatec Ltd. of Johannesburg. Datatec also owns Tarrytown, N.Y.-based specialty distributor WestconGroup.

Moving from sibling companies to being part of the same company will enable Via Group and Logicalis to have a more unified strategy, broader perspective in the employee base and consistently offer strong prices to customers by avoiding margin stacking, DeLuca said. Logicalis and Via worked together on some deals as sibling companies where the skills and services of both companies were needed.

The deal was primarily a switch in what entity had the operational and legal rights over Via Group, DeLuca said, rather than a traditional acquisition in which an asset is sold to an outside entity for its full value. Both Logicalis and Via work primarily with commercial and enterprise customers, DeLuca said.

Existing Via customers will be able to leverage Logicalis' international presence and expertise in areas such as mobility, wireless, video, virtual call centers and virtual private networks to deliver more comprehensive and wide-reaching solutions to customers, according to the companies. The deal will also bolster Logicalis' ability to support client solutions from the data center to the mobile workforce.

Acquiring Via Group will enable Logicalis to gain more of a foothold in verticals such as energy, local government and legal, according to the companies. In addition to being a Microsoft Unified Communications Gold partner, Via also works closely with vendors such as Avaya, Polycom, Dell, Nortel, Cisco, Siemens and Fujitsu.

Logicalis plans to retain the Via brand name in the short term to take advantage of its momentum in the market, DeLuca said. Over time, though, DeLuca said Via will be folded in to Logicalis' existing structure and branding.

Via is Logicalis' fifth acquisition since the start of 2015. Logicalis bought Australian cloud and data center services provider Thomas Duryea Consulting in December, Lekscom in October, the advanced technology integration group of MCPc, No. 72 on the CRN SP 500, in July, and analytics dashboard solution provider Trovus in May.

DeLuca said Logicalis plans to continue using acquisitions to bolster its capabilities around next-generation technology.

"There's so much change happening, and the pace of change is faster than we've seen in quite some time," DeLuca said.

Logicalis has annual revenue in excess of $1.5 billion and employs more than 4,000 people globally. In addition to being a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, Logicalis also works closely with vendors such as Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, EMC, NetApp, VMware and ServiceNow.