Printer vendor Ricoh has reached an agreement to buy managed services provider mindShift Technologies Inc., a company currently owned by retailer Best Buy Co. of Minneapolis, Minn.
Best Buy uses mindShift for providing managed IT, cloud, data centre and professional services to the SMB. This acquisition was described by Ricoh as a strategic investment to expand and deepen its services portfolio.
Last year CDN learned from Ricoh Canada that the subsidiary was interested in working with Canadian based managed services providers. No details were released on the Canadian aspects of this deal.
MindShift is focused on the U.S. market and works with more than 6,900 clients. Ricoh believes the its IT Services capabilities and managed services offerings will help the company expand services as well as support Ricoh’s growth as a provider of IT Services.
The addition of mindShift’s nationwide expertise will bring along more than 8,000 specialists to the printer vendor.
Martin Brodigan, chairman and CEO of Ricoh Americas, said the company can now offer a greatly enhanced range of services for its customers and to small and medium-sized customers.
Mona Abutaleb, president and CEO of mindShift, said Ricoh’s leadership position in the small and mid-sized business space and a common philosophy in delivering innovative ways to solve technology challenges can deliver even more value to customers together.
Besides SMB, mindShift also plays in the legal, healthcare, financial services, associations and non-profits, and education space.
No changes are coming to mindShift as a result of this deal. The company will continue to operate under its current name, management team and capabilities, which currently include 650 employees at offices in Boston, Chicago, Long Island, N.Y., Minneapolis, Morrisville, N.C., New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas, TX.
The acquisition is expected to close in February 2014 at which time mindShift will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh.
