19 Jul Berbee acquires Ohio IT company, expands eastward
MADISON – Berbee Information Networks has acquired Foresight Technology Group in an effort to expand both its geographic and customer bases. Announced last Friday, the purchase is expected to establish a symbiotic relationship between the companies.
“I think we’ll get a positive response, overwhelmingly positive response with new capabilities that we’ll be able to provide,” said Foresight President Rich Croll.
These new capabilities refer to Foresight’s access to Berbee’s decorated partnerships with Cisco Systems, Microsoft and IBM, in addition to data center and infrastructure services. Alternatively, Berbee will be making use of Foresight’s authorization to provide all of IMB’s eSeries servers and zSeries mainframe computers, a capability Berbee previously lacked.
Berbee also recently bought Wausau-based Network Engineering Associates, an information technology firm. Paul Shain, president of Berbee, said that the company usually adds two offices annually, and this year it just happened to be via acquisitions. With the Ohio expansion, Berbee now has offices in six states.
“We had the opportunity to acquire two very strong companies that had particular geographic fit with us. In both cases, the companies brought a customer base and strong set of technology resources,” Shain said.
Foresight’s operations will remain in Ohio and Berbee’s products will be imported into the state, Croll said. The company also plans to add staff in the Cisco and Microsoft areas.
Berbee expects to gain a couple hundred customers through Foresight, Shain said.
“Our view is that being a large regional player is important – critical capabilities are important for customers,” Shain said.
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Kristin V. Johnson is the Associate Editor of WTN. She can be reached at kristin@wistechnology.com.