CDW To ‘Expand And Scale’ As $2.5B Sirius Acquisition Closes
In one of the largest channel mergers in history, CDW has closed its $2.5 billion acquisition of Sirius Computer Solutions. Here’s what you need to know.
CDW has closed one of the biggest channel deals in history with its $2.5 billion purchase of Sirius Computer Solutions, creating a $20 billion solution provider giant backed by more than 13,000 employees.
“Through this transaction, we meaningfully expand and scale our services and solutions capabilities and further enhance our ability to solve customers’ increasing interconnected and complex technology challenges,” said Christine Leahy, CDW’s president and CEO, in a statement. “The addition of Sirius strengthens our role as the trusted technology adviser to our customers, with the expertise and portfolio breadth, depth and scale to orchestrate complete customer-centric outcomes across the full technology solutions stack and life cycle.”
The deal brings together one of the top global IT product providers in CDW, which has $18.5 billion in annual sales, with $2 billion solution provider standout Sirius. CDW’s stock has climbed from $177.72 per share on Oct. 15, the day before CDW unveiled its plans to acquire Sirius, to now trading at $193.62 per share as of Friday morning.
[Related: CDW’s CEO: 6 Reasons Why Sirius Acquisition Is A ‘Home Run’]
Three key pillars of the acquisition include bolstering CDW’s technical workforce, increasing services sales and creating 3,900 new cross-selling opportunities.
CDW CEO Leahy said Sirius will increase the scale of CDW’s services portfolio from $900 million in annual net revenue in 2020 to approximately $1.3 billion, an increase of 45 percent.
In addition, Sirius brings over 2,600 employees to CDW’s 10,500-strong workforce. More than half of Sirius’ employees are technical, holding over 5,500 IT professional and technical certifications. “This would increase CDW’s total technical co-workers by over 45 percent to 4,700 strong—a meaningful increase in today’s competitive market for IT talent,” said Leahy earlier this year.
Finally, CDW and Sirius serve complementary customers and markets across the country, with cross-selling opportunities ahead around Sirius’ base of 3,900 customers.
Longtime Sirius President and CEO Joe Mertens will remain part of CDW for at least a couple of years, he told CRN in October.
Over the past 10 years, Mertens built Sirius from a $767 million solution provider into a $2.4 billion channel powerhouse. “Together, we will have the ability to broaden our reach and deliver even more value to our customers, who we expect to benefit substantially from the accelerated services and solutions mix, scale and efficiency of the combined company,” Mertens said in a statement Friday.
The new company will enhance CDW’s services and solutions capabilities in key growth areas like hybrid infrastructure, cybersecurity, data innovation, cloud and managed services, along with adding broad services scale.
Founded in 1980, San Antonio-based Sirius is a leading national solution integrator with multiple offices across the U.S. CDW was founded in 1984 and is a top global IT provider for governments, education and health-care customers in North America and the U.K.