By Published On: December 5, 2022

FOCUS Investment Banking Represents Cantey Tech in its Acquisition of Palindrome Consulting

Washington, DC, (December 5, 2022) – FOCUS Investment Banking (“FOCUS”),  a national middle market investment banking firm providing merger, acquisition, divestiture, and corporate finance services, announced today that Cantey Tech Consulting, a leading IT managed service provider (MSP) for small and mid-sized businesses in the southeast United States, has acquired Palindrome Consulting, a Hollywood, Florida-based provider of IT managed services. FOCUS advised Cantey Tech in this transaction.

The combination of the two companies provides Palindrome’s clients with additional service capabilities and more resources, while they will retain the local service that they have come to expect. The transaction also allows Cantey Tech to expand into Florida, consistent with its strategy of growing throughout the Southeast.

“We are delighted to partner with the Palindrome team, which has provided its clients with high levels of service for more than 20 years,” said Willis Cantey, Cantey Tech’s president. “Cantey Tech is excited about our initial entry into Florida through this partnership and we look forward to further expansion in the state with devoted resources to achieve this growth.”

Ilan Sredni, Palindrome’s founder and president, noted, “In an increasingly complex IT environment, partnering with Cantey Tech allows us to offer our clients additional services and solutions, while continuing to provide them with top notch support and advice. The Cantey Tech team was great to work with during the transaction, and they delivered on the promised timeline and terms.”

Cantey Tech provides a broad offering of IT managed services, including IT consulting services, help desk support, data security, cloud management, backup and disaster recovery, hosting, application support, and vendor management. The company is based in Charleston, South Carolina, with team members across the United States. It leverages its local focus and presence to provide a high level of responsive support to small and mid-sized businesses across a wide range of industries. Cantey Tech’s team, including its Virtual CIOs, takes the time to carefully understand each client’s business goals and objectives, then develops a customized technology plan and budget to maximize their success.

“FOCUS has been the catalyst for ten (10) MSP ‘Platform’ transactions, and Cantey Tech stands out as one of our fastest growing from an organic growth perspective (e.g. 9x Inc. 5000 fastest growing recognition).  The Palindrome acquisition is Cantey’s first since receiving private equity backing from LNC Partners,” commented Abraham Garver, FOCUS MSP Team Leader and Managing Director. “This is extremely exciting as it’s the first step in Willis Cantey fulfilling his dream to build the ultimate ‘Peer group’ of Founder/ CEO operators in the Southeast doing business under the Cantey Tech umbrella.”

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Abraham Garver is a MSP banker for FOCUS Investment Banking. Over the past four years the team has advised on MSP transactions with 76 parties including catapulting the 12 MSP below into “New Platforms” for private equity sponsors:

The Purple Guys (ECS + My IT)
TechMD (formerly ICS)
General Informatics
Integris (Domain + Tier 1)
Cantey Tech (Cantey Tech + Cantey EDU)
CyberSheath
ITS (Intelligent Technical Solutions + Intivix + PC Miracles)
Entech (Entech + ITVantage)
ProVelocity + IronEdge
Lockstep + Renovus Capital
MSP Corp + Groupe Access

Over his career Mr. Garver has worked on sell-, buy- and valuation assignments with approximately 150 public, private, and fastest-growing members of the MSP 501, CRN500, ChannelE2E Top 100 & Inc. 500 and served as a guest commentator on Bloomberg, MSP Business School and at NASDAQ.

Mr. Garver is a recurring conference speaker for IT Nation Connect, Channel Partners and MSSP Alert Live and recurring news source for ChannelE2E, CRN, Channel Futures, TechTarget & PEHub. As an author he has contributed over 125 articles in numerous publications including FORBES.

Prior to joining FOCUS, Abraham worked with Merrill Lynch’s M&A Technology Group in San Francisco and E&Y’s Business Valuation Group in Los Angeles. In addition to his professional pursuits, Mr. Garver is a member of The University Club of New York and Governor (Emeritus) of the University of Southern California Alumni Association.

Mr. Garver holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, and a master’s degree in finance from the Manderson Graduate School. He is registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) as a General Securities Representative (Series 7 and 63) and a Limited Representative – Investment Banking (Series 79).

Recent MSP/MSSP Deal Experience
MSP Corp
ProVelocity
Entech Computer Services, Inc.
Cantey Technology Consulting, LLC
Golden Technologies, Inc.
Security7 Networks, LLC
DS Tech
Versiant Corporation, Inc.
Cantey Technology Consulting, LLC
The Network Support Company, LLC
Integrated Computer Solutions of Vestal, LLC
DSM Technology Consultants, LLC
Intelligent Technical Solutions, Inc.
Lighthouse Technology Partners
Accelerate, Inc.
CMS IP Technologies
Unicom Technologies
CyberSheath Services International, LLC
AKUITY Technologies
General Informatics
Frontenac XI Private Capital, L.P.
ECS Acquisition Holdings, LLC