It's Official: Intermedia Acquired by Madison Dearborn Partners
In the cloud communications space, the mergers and acquisitions frenzy continues as the acquisition of top cloud business applications provider Intermedia (Intermedia.net Inc.) by Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) has closed.
Last week, Intermedia announced that the transaction has finally been sealed long after the acquisition was initially announced in September 2016. Oak Hill Capital Partners, Intermedia’s primary shareholders, have sold their stake in the company to MDP as per the terms of the transaction. No financial terms of the deal were announced.
A New Chapter for Intermedia
Despite the change in ownership, it is business as usual for Intermedia. They will continue to operate as a standalone company, providing secure and reliable cloud business applications to customers and partners.
Mike Gold will also continue to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of Intermedia, while the company’s headquarters is to remain in Mountain View, California as well. And while there are not any significant changes in terms of operations just yet, Gold says customers and partners can expect added support and more capabilities.
Gold said, “Our partnership with MDP gives us added flexibility and resources to further strengthen our leadership position.” “With a shared vision of the future, we plan to accelerate growth through increased investments in our cloud management platform, channel solutions, communities and programs, our J.D. Power-certified support experience, new and existing products, targeted industry solutions, and potential additional acquisitions,” he added.
Zaid Alsikafi, Managing Director at MDP and Intermedia’s new Chairman, also said that he looks forward to working with the Intermedia team. “Intermedia has been able to successfully capitalize upon the global shift to the cloud and possesses tremendous potential to capture further market opportunities. We look forward to working alongside Mike and the Intermedia senior management team as we further scale the business,” he said.
Accelerated Growth, More Investment in Channel
While Intermedia has yet to launch any new offerings under the new management, they have announced the major focus of the business following this new deal.
In an interview, Gold confirmed that they will be focusing on growing their channel programs by decreasing the number of partners managed by each of their representatives. In fact, the company has announced an overhaul of its sales organization in early January to provide more support to its channel ecosystem.
“To support the restructuring of its channel ecosystem, Intermedia is increasing investments across nearly every sales function, from customer and partner account management to sales enablement and engineering,” a statement read. As part of the restructuring, the company recruited Eric Martorano, previously a General Manager of US Partner Sales at Microsoft, to become the new Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Intermedia with the mission to scale the latter’s channel business.
The company also plans to strengthen their partner program by providing more training, marketing and sales assistance, and greater opportunities for profitability and differentiation.
Intermedia currently has over 6,000 active partners worldwide, which is comprised of value-added resellers (VARs), managed service providers (MSPs), distributors, and telecoms.
To learn more about Intermedia, please visit their website.
About Intermedia
Intermedia provides essential cloud IT apps and services for businesses worldwide. Their Office in the Cloud™ suite is a popular robust solution that integrates over 30 critical business services from a single provider--including email, voice, conferencing, file sharing, instant messaging, and more. Since 1995, Intermedia has helped businesses simplify their operations by providing flexible, secure, and reliable cloud business apps. They also offer a Partner Program that lets resellers sell Intermedia’s solutions under their own brand.
About Madison Dearborn Partners
Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) is a private equity investment firm based in Chicago, Illinois. They specialize in management buyouts and investments in businesses across a broad range of industries, including telecom, business and government services, healthcare, financial and transaction services, and more.
