$1 Billion Managed IT Service Provider (MSP) Up for Sale

by Joe Panettieri • Jun 8, 2022

Cincinnati Bell is seeking to sell its technology solutions business unit — an MSP that generates at least $1 billion in annual revenues across managed cloud services, communications, IT consulting and cybersecurity.

The potential Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions (CBTS) asset sale was first reported by The Deal. Potential suitors include AHEAD and Presidio, two well-known IT services firms, the report suggested. ChannelE2E has not independently confirmed that speculation.

CBTS: Key MSP Business, Technology and Financial Metrics

Macquarie Infrastructure Partners (MIP) has owned Cincinnati Bell and the associated CBTS unit since 2020. According to the CBTS website, the MSP has:

• 2,400 customers
• $1 billion in revenue — though we don’t know what percentage of the revenue is recurring.
• 1,500 “experts” who carry 2,800 technology certifications.

Also, the Deal estimates CBTS annual EBITDA at $90 million.

Areas of CBTS expertise include:

• Cloud services that address public cloud, consulting, services, data protection and management;
• Communications services that span UCaaS, SD-WAN, network security, collaboration and more;
• Infrastructure services for network, compute, data management and IaaS;
• Consulting, IT staffing and application services; and
• Security services that span MSSP, security assessments, training and cloud security.

Technology and Cybersecurity Partnerships

Key CBTS technology partnerships include Avaya, Cisco Systems, Dell, Hitachi, HPE, IBM, Microsoft, NetApp, Oracle, Palo Alto Networks, Splunk and VMware.

Key CBTS security and data protection partners include Cohesity, Check Point, FireEye, Fortinet, NTT Security, VMware Car Black, and Zerto, among others.