Office Equipment Supplier Buys MSP -

Maybe it's time for me to eat some crow. Generally speaking, I don't think the office equipment market and the managed services provider (MSP) industry are converging all that much. But Business Complete Solutions (BCS) and StarPoint Advantage are out to prove me wrong.

Indeed, BCS has acquired StarPoint, the two companies have confirmed. BCS claims to be San Diego's largest independently owned supplier of office equipment, document management systems, managed print, and managed IT services. In contrast, StarPoint specializes on managed and cloud services and works within the San Diego region as well.

About the BCS, StarPoint

BCS, which launched in 2002, serves more than 2,500 customers and is an authorized full-line Konica-Minolta, Toshiba, Muratec, KIP, Oki Data, and HP office equipment dealer. StarPoint, launched in 2008, seems to have bet its entire business on managed services.

ChannelE2E is checking in with BCS CEO Keith Justus and StarPoint CEO David Davis for more details about the deal.

This is the latest in a growing list of M&A transactions involving VARs, MSPs and cloud services providers in recent weeks. The dealings have included:

Cloud data centers: Immedion acquired Appica

Oracle managed services: Emtec acquired Summit Technology

New England IT services: Internet & Telephone acquired Jenaly

Hybrid cloud: Presidio acquired Sequoia Worldwide

Multiple Microsoft Dynamics VARs and IT consulting firms have been acquired in 2015.

Private equity firms have been buying up IT service providers and VARs.

And emerging cloud service providers have acquired MSPs for regional and technical reach.

We'll be sure to update this article if/when we receive more details about the BCS-StarPoint Deal