CPE Media News (1/8/2019) – M/C Partners has acquired Carbon60 Networks Inc. of Toronto and Gossamer Threads Inc. (GT.net) of Vancouver. The combined company will operate under the name Carbon60 Networks.
In addition to providing liquidity for selling shareholders, M/C Partners is investing capital to support organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
Current Carbon60 CEO John Witte will lead the company. John, who is also an investor and Board Member, was previously an executive at Fusepoint, a prior M/C portfolio company. Alex Krohn, founder and CEO of Gossamer Threads, will continue to have a key role at the company as CTO, in addition to being an investor and Board Member.
With the backing of Roynat Capital, Witte acquired control of Carbon60 from founder Peter Kelly in 2014.
Boston based M/C Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively on the communications, information technology services and media sectors. Past Canadian portfolio companies included Fusepoint (sold to Savvis for US $124.5 million in 2010), Public Mobile (sold to TELUS in 2013).
photo credit: M/C Partners
News Release
M/C Partners Closes Acquisitions of Carbon60 Networks and Gossamer Threads
January 08, 2019 07:00 AM Eastern Standard Time
BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–M/C Partners today announced the acquisitions of Toronto, ON-based Carbon60 Networks, Inc. and Vancouver, BC-based Gossamer Threads Inc. (GT.net). The merger of these two managed cloud services companies will create a leading platform in the Canadian market. The combined company will operate under the name Carbon60 Networks.
In addition to providing liquidity for selling shareholders, M/C Partners is investing capital to support organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
“These businesses are natural complements to one another and create a combined entity with enhanced scale, technical expertise and geographic reach,” said Gillis Cashman, Managing Partner at M/C Partners. “We are excited to partner with these two exceptional teams to build a market leading cloud services provider. We anticipate growing the Carbon60 platform with future acquisitions that will add capabilities and help the company expand into new markets.”
Carbon60 was founded in 1999 and Gossamer Threads was founded in 1996. Each company has developed into a well-regarded managed cloud services provider in its respective market with strong technical capability and a commitment to the highest standards of customer service. The combined company is experiencing success in the burgeoning managed third party cloud space using AWS and Azure and expects to accelerate this category along with its private cloud offerings. In addition, both companies have expertise in application hosting, with a focus on Content Management Systems (CMS) hosting. The combined Carbon60 business will be the dominant CMS hosting provider in Canada.
Current Carbon60 CEO John Witte will lead the company. John, who is also an investor and Board Member, was previously an executive at a prior M/C portfolio company, Fusepoint, before it was sold to Savvis in 2010. Alex Krohn, founder and CEO of Gossamer Threads, will continue to have a key role at the company as CTO, in addition to being an investor and Board Member.
“M/C has a long history investing in managed hosting and IT services businesses and their knowledge of our industry will be a tremendous asset to the company,” said John Witte. “They are the perfect partner for us at this stage of our growth as we strive to lead the managed cloud market in Canada and I am thrilled to be working with them for a second time.”
Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP and Norton Rose Fulbright LLP served as legal advisers for M/C Partners. Blaney McMurtry LLP served as the legal adviser for Carbon60 Networks and Ian Muirhead served as the legal adviser for Gossamer Threads.
About Carbon60 Networks
Carbon60 Networks specializes in delivering end-to-end managed hosting solutions for public and private sector organizations with business-critical workloads. Carbon60 provides secure and high-performance hosting services using its Canadian cloud platform in Toronto and Kelowna and the leading hyperscale clouds for hybrid IT solutions. The company also has a niche in application hosting for enterprise-grade WordPress and Drupal CMS. Carbon60 guides customers on their cloud journey and can engage with clients at any stage of their transition. Carbon60 provides a white-glove customer experience with a deep level of technical support services combined with a nimble approach making them the trusted choice for companies that need a partner to deliver solutions with exceptional reliability, performance and security. For more information, please visit www.carbon60.com.
About Gossamer Threads
Gossamer Threads provides performance hosting options (dedicated, clustered, private cloud) and application hosting solutions that come standard with high value managed services like optimization testing, monitoring, security, back-up and restoration. The company also offers add-on managed services, including access to a Content Delivery Network, Application and DB Optimization, Disaster Recovery, and assistance with PCI/DSS and HIPAA Compliance. Based in Vancouver BC, Canada, Gossamer Threads maintains four geographically separated data centers in Vancouver, Toronto, New York and London to ensure high data availability and security. For more information, please visit www.gt.net.
About M/C Partners
Based in Boston, M/C Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively on the communications, information technology services and media sectors. The firm has invested over $2.2 billion of capital into nearly 100 companies, generally investing in companies with enterprise values of $25 million to $250 million. Related current and prior investments include Cavalier Telephone, Ensono, Everstream, Fusepoint, Denovo, ICG Communications, Involta, Lightower, NuVox, Thrive Networks and Zayo Group. The firm has strong institutional backing from the nation’s leading pension funds and endowments as well as a long track record of success. For more information, visit www.mcpartners.com.
Contacts
Bik Dutta
Carbon60 Networks
Vice President, Marketing
416-272-2554
Bik.dutta@carbon60.com