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Partner of the Year M&A: New Signature Buys Dot Net Solutions

In a merger of high-profile Microsoft partners, U.S.-based New Signature bought U.K.-based Dot Net Solutions in a deal announced Tuesday.

New Signature is the 2014 and 2015 Microsoft U.S. Partner of the Year; Dot Net is the 2014 Microsoft U.K. Partner of the Year.

The merger brings New Signature's headcount to 320, up from about 90 people before a $35 million investment from Columbia Capital a year ago enabled the acquisitions of CMS Consulting, Infrastructure Guardian, imason Inc. and InfraScience.

"Microsoft is clearly positioned to be a market leader in cloud computing and we are delighted with how Dot Net's existing capabilities, team and overall mission fits with the New Signature strategy," said New Signature CEO Jeff Tench in a statement.

Dot Net's management team will remain intact, with Managing Director Paul Cosgrave now reporting to Tench. New Signature Founder and President Christopher Hertz will run the North American operations, also reporting to Tench.

The next step is to replicate the expansion in the United Kingdom in the same way that New Signature has in the United States in Canada. "Dot Net can now accelerate its tremendous growth in the U.K., building on its position of leadership as a combined Microsoft public cloud integrator and managed services provider via a number of specific, targeted acquisitions," Cosgrave said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the trans-Atlantic nature of the company will improve each side's ability to offer round-the-clock support, and the two also intend to replicate each other's best practices. Dot Net has a mature process for application migration to Azure and a strong Office 365 support playbook that New Signature looks forward to using, Hertz said in an interview with RCP. Meanwhile, Dot Net will benefit from New Signature's broader experience across the Microsoft stack, both in the cloud and on-premises, Hertz said.

Posted by Scott Bekker on May 03, 2016


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