Aldridge Acquires MSP TWIST Solutions to Expand Cloud Services and Operations

Houston-based IT services provider Aldridge has a history of buying up smaller MSPs to expand its offerings and coverage area. The company acquired IS Support last June in a bid to offer faster response times and to simplify IT operations for customers. Now Aldridge has acquired Dallas-based TWIST Solutions, an MSP catering to small and medium-sized enterprises.

By joining forces, the two MSPs are becoming one of the largest providers of IT services in Texas. TWIST brings to the table its unique brand of personalized IT support as well as a suite of network management and cloud services. The company’s clients, which come from the professional services, manufacturing and distribution sectors, will benefit from Aldridge’s broad range of experience and vast coverage area.

The acquisition is the fourth major buyout for Aldridge in recent months that also included the IT services division of The Harding Group, which established its presence in the Dallas area. The acquisitions are in line with a larger M&A trend among MSPs, as they endeavor to meet new market demands brought about by cloud computing technology adoption.

According to research from Ephor Group, an increasing number of MSPs are adding valuable cloud-related services like managed applications and devices, remote offerings, and managed backup and disaster recovery offerings to their portfolios. That shift caused a massive increase in MSP acquisitions last year, and the company forecasts an even greater number for 2015.

"In the current IT environment, we determined it was necessary for TWIST to team with a larger and more mature managed services company to satisfy the increasingly complex demands of our customers, and Aldridge was the perfect match," said Kevin Trottier, CEO of TWIST. "Aldridge describes the concept of trust as its backbone, which is very much how we approach business. Everything we do builds trust or we won't do it."

"This is our biggest acquisition to date and we expect integrating the TWIST team will help us scale up our business in Dallas rapidly and capture more opportunities in the underserved SME market," added Patrick Wiley, president and COO of Aldridge.

TWIST’s 30 employees will ultimately be integrated with Aldridge’s operations in Dallas, with the company’s executive leaders staying on board temporarily through the transition process. Once combined, the MSP will have close to 100 IT professionals and offices in Dallas, Houston and Austin. Areas of specialization will include custom managed and professional services as well as cloud services.