ATSG and Evolve IP announce combination

Global cloud and managed service provider ATSG has sealed a strategic combination with Evolve IP to create a major global channel player.

The combined entity will have more than $230m of revenue and serve 1,700 global customers, with most of the business generating monthly recurring revenues under long-term contracts.

For ATSG, which has a controlling majority backed by venture capital player RunTide Capital, the tie-up adds more service capabilities and technical depth.

The plan is to combine offerings from both firms into a broader portfolio of managed services and expand EMEA partnerships and its global white-label business.

“Evolve IP offers an innovative, market-leading suite of desktop-as-a-service, cloud communications and contact centre solutions. Combined with ATSG’s infrastructure-centric managed services, we will strengthen our collective position in the market and provide better outcomes for our combined base of customers,” said Russ Reeder, CEO of ATSG, who also becomes CEO of the combined company.

“By combining with Evolve IP, not only are we combining our collective expertise, culture and services, we’re also positioning ATSG to emerge as one of the largest privately owned managed services platforms, with an ability to drive value for all of our stakeholders,” he added.

In response, Jeff Coursen, CEO of Evolve IP, said the deal – the terms of which were not disclosed – would benefit its staff and customers.

“This aggregation of our talent, tools and resources is a testament to our commitment to pioneering the industry and will enable us to offer maximum value for our customers. We are looking forward to leveraging ATSG’s rich platform of intellectual property and suite of services capabilities to deliver an increasingly end-to-end solution for our customers and partners of Evolve IP,” he said.

When it comes to what the deal means for the business here and across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Paul Harrison, EMEA managing director of Evolve IP, said it would provide more routes to growth.

“The opportunity this combination brings to our EMEA partners is transformative. Having the combined knowledge and financial support of ATSG will enable us to accelerate our growth even further and build on our success of recent years, growing our presence in the channel globally and developing the Evolve IP brand across EMEA,” he said.

“This is great news for our partners as ATSG brings further skills, funding and leading technologies to the table, allowing partners to grow their businesses and further develop their service offering as an Evolve IP partner,” he added.

Evolve IP has been growing its channel base, having recently added Gloucester-based F&M Telecommunications to the list.

F&M indicated it was going to tap into the firm’s suite of cloud-based collaboration solutions.

Jamie Hughes, UK sales director at Evolve IP, said the business attracted a record number of resellers last year and was building on that momentum.

“Our expanding ecosystem of best-of-breed solutions includes call capture, business insights, conversational moments, API integrations, receptionist console, PCI-compliant payment services, outbound AI [artificial intelligence] communications, CCaaS [contact centre as a service] solutions and business mobile technology,” he said.