Best Buy this morning announced its acquisition of mindSHIFT Technologies, which provides managed IT, cloud, data center and other professional services to small and mid-sized businesses all across the United States, for $167 million. mindSHIFT is said to serve more than 5,400 clients and 25,000 managed desktops nationwide.
According to a press statement, mindSHIFT will continue to operate under its current name and management team. All 500 employees – who work from mindSHIFT’s offices in Boston, Long Island (NY), Minneapolis, Morrisville (NC), New York City, Philadelphia and Washington (DC) – will be making the transfer to Best Buy.
Here’s how the retail giant pitches its acquisition of mindSHIFT:
“The combination of mindSHIFT ‘s capabilities and Best Buy’s points of distribution through its retail, Geek Squad services and Best Buy For Business operations is expected to create a competitive advantage that would provide an opportunity for the two companies to capture greater share within the estimated $40 billion small and mid-sized business MSP market.”
The acquisition is reminiscent of Best Buy’s purchase of Geek Squad (2002).
The transaction is expected to close by year’s end, subject to customary closing conditions.
The news comes on the same day as Best Buy’s unceremonious exit from the UK.