Presidio: BC Partners Sale Report ‘Just Another Market Rumor’

Channel partner superstar Presidio comments on recent news reports that BC Partners is looking to sell the $3.1 billion solution provider.

Presidio says the news report today stating that BC Partners is exploring the sale of the $3.1 billion solution provider powerhouse is simply a “market rumor.”

“This is just another market rumor,” said Presidio in an email to CRN. “We’re focused on what matters—providing impactful outcomes for our customers, our team and our business. Beyond that, we don’t comment on rumors.”

Reuters on Monday said Presidio’s private equity owner, BC Partners, is looking to sell Presidio for approximately $4 billion. The news outlet said Presidio is currently working with an investment bank for the sale process.

Founded in 2003, New York-based Presidio is an IT services giant with more than 3,300 employees nationwide and a top national partner for the likes of Dell Technologies and Cisco.

Presidio’s Surging Growth

Presidio has been growing its market footprint and go-to-market capabilities over the past several years since being acquired by BC partners in 2019.

In fact, just last month, Presidio acquired system integrator ROVE to boost its geographical presence in the Southeast region of the U.S.

Presidio also recently formed a new strategic collaboration agreement with public cloud titan Amazon Web Services, marking the biggest collaboration partnership in the company’s history. The company’s annual cloud sales are upwards of $600 million, backed by a team of 500 cloud professionals.

Additionally, Presidio achieved Dell Technologies’ most prestigious partner status ealier this year, becoming a Dell Titanium Black Partner.

Presidio ranks No. 24 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500 list.

Presidio’s Ownership History

BC Partners is just the latest private equity owner of Presidio over the past 20 years.

In 2011, American Securities acquired the IT solution provider for an undisclosed amount.

Around three years later, American Securities sold Presidio to Apollo Global Management for approximately $1.3 billion.

Apollo made Presidio a public company in 2017.

In 2019, BC Partners purchased Presidio in a $2.1 billion deal and took the company private again.

London-based BC Partners says it has $40 billion in assets under management.

Presidio CEO Weighs In On Private Equity Firms

Last year, Presidio CEO Bob Cagnazzi spoke to CRN about the importance of being backed by private equity firms, which help add scale to a channel partner.

“You need to have the capital base to invest in the capex portion of customer solutions that you’re building. So scale becomes more important today. Private equity is interested in our industry because they realize that, ‘OK, scale now is going to be truly important,’” said Cagnazzi.

He said channel partners today need the financial resources to scale across the technology spectrum while also adding talent and resources, which is where private equity firms come into play. “You also need to have the customer base that’s large enough that you can leverage all those resources rather than have them sitting on the bench,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to keep them busy.”

Presidio has acquired several smaller channel partners over the years as part of BC Partners, including cloud consulting specialist Coda Global in 2020 to boost its cloud business, as well as Ireland-based Arkphire last year to significantly increase its global footprint.