Kaseya’s CEO detailed that the IT Glue acquisition actually took place two years ao, and has been kept under wraps. He also indicated what will happen with IT Glue now that the acquisition has been formally announced, and dropped some hints about what is next on the acquisition front.

On Wednesday afternoon, Kaseya, which provides IT infrastructure management solutions for both MSPs and internal IT organizations, announced the completed acquisition of Vancouver-based IT Glue, the market leader in IT documentation software specifically for the MSP market. They have since clarified that the deal was actually agreed to two years ago – and that preparations for the transition that is now public have been ongoing since that time.

That revelation explains much about the departure of IT Glue Founder and CEO Chris Day. The departure wasn’t as sudden as it seemed yesterday, but was part of a planned two year process – which is the time that many CEOs of acquired companies stay with the new firm.

“Chris stayed for two years, and we have been actively transitioning over the last six months, as per the plan,” said Fred Voccola, Kaseya’s CEO. “He lived up to every commitment he said he would do. Luis Giraldo, the VP of Product, and Nadir Merchant, the Chief Technology Officer, were fully empowered for this. They will remain in place and will continue to manage IT Glue as an independent subsidiary.”

The deal had really been in the works for three years.

“Chris is one of the best pure entrepreneurs I’ve ever met,” Voccola said. “He has a really unique way of understanding technology and how it can make certain businesses better. We saw that about three years ago when we first started talking. Their business model, their pricing were extremely well thought out. I suggested buying them then, and Chris was receptive to that, and we agreed to it two years ago.”

The purchase was made under Non-Disclosure Agreement, which the companies adhered to, so that the fact Kaseya owned IT Glue for the past two years was not public at all.

“We agreed at that point that we needed to keep IT Glue as a complete standalone,” Voccola stressed. “We needed to avoid any perception that IT Glue is no longer a completely open platform. So we did not announce then that it was a Kaseya asset. We allowed the market to accept the growing importance of IT documentation as IT Glue took the lead, effectively building the market for documentation for MSPs. Now we have announced it, and with continued investment of capital, we can take IT Glue to the next level.”

While IT Glue pioneered the documentation market for MSPs, other companies younger than them have come into it since, but Voccola said that Kaseya isn’t concerned that the market will turn to these out of fear that IT Glue will no longer behave independently.

“We have already owned IT Glue for two years,” Voccola emphasized. “How IT Glue has behaved in these two years is how it will behave going forward. RapidFire Tools, which we acquired early this year, integrates with everyone, and is standalone. We have done that with every other acquisition that we have done, specifically Unitrends and Spanning.”

Voccola said that IT Glue will continue to enjoy a huge first mover advantage in the space.

“It’s a great market, and Chris created it,” he said. “We have a four year head start. We have more experience in IT documentation than anyone else – times ten. We have 20x the R&D capital to put into the product. I’m sure some people will look to create FUD, but I think the majority of folks will see through it. In addition, 92 per cent of Kaseya customers are not homogeneous. They have products from other vendors in categories that we offer product.”

Voccola indicated that IT Glue will remain based in Vancouver, and that the staff there will increase, significantly.

“We are very excited about the fact we have a very large presence in Vancouver, and we expect our footprint in Vancouver to double in the next 24 months,” he said.

IT Glue debuted their GlueCon event last year, and that will continue as well.

“Kaseya owned IT Glue when the event was held last year, Voccola said. “It was a great success, and will continue.”

Finally, Voccola indicated that Kaseya is not done in its short to mid-term acquisition plans.

“We are making sure we can provide MSPs with a fully integrated platform  that will make their technicians as efficient as possible,” he indicated. “I think you will see us get deeper into the security business. We bought Unigma a couple of years ago, and they have done well,  but MSPs need more solutions around hybrid cloud management, so it’s likely that we will do something there as well.”