Business Flip!Flip Business Flip

CBiz Inc. doesn’t want to be in the technology business, but other local companies do.

The Independence-based business services provider has sold two of its information technology business units to other companies with offices in Northeast Ohio, and it is talking to another local company about buying another IT division.

CBiz is selling the three businesses in an effort to put more focus on its core professional services, which include accounting, tax and other financial services, employee benefits management and physician practice management, said Lori Novickis, director of corporate relations for CBiz.

The company earlier this month sold the IT consulting division of its CBiz Technologies unit to InterDyn Socius, a Dublin-based consulting firm with a Brecksville office. It also sold its CBiz Network Solutions unit, which sells IT repair services and phone systems to businesses, to IT services firm Thinsolutions of Lakewood. None of the companies would disclose terms of the deals.

CBiz also is working to sell an IT staffing business that operates under the CBiz Technologies name. Among the potential buyers it has talked to is data center maintenance firm Park Place Technologies of Chagrin Falls.

Ms. Novickis noted that the three technology businesses generated about $13.5 million of the $739 million in revenue that CBiz received in 2009.

“We were never a big tech company,” she said.

The purchases will have a bigger impact on the companies buying the business units.

Thinsolutions is keeping nine of the roughly 20 employees who worked for CBiz Network Solutions, which was based in Mayfield Village. As part of the purchase, the Lakewood company, which already employed 30, will gain the ability to sell traditional and Internet protocol-based phone systems, CEO Michael Fischer said.

The acquisition also gives Thinsolutions a whole new list of clients to whom it can sell its IT services, which are more focused on preventive maintenance and network monitoring than CBiz Network Solutions’ services. Such synergies should help Thinsolutions double its revenue by the end of February 2011, he said. He declined to give revenue figures for the company.

Likewise, Socius, which employs 65 people, plans to consolidate the 20 employees in its Brecksville office with 26 former CBiz Technologies employees this May, once the company finishes renovating 6,000 square feet of office space on West Snowville Road, said Socius marketing coordinator Julie Stankey. Socius decided to lease more space in the new building, located just down the street from its current 2,858-square-foot office, after opting to buy the CBiz unit, Ms. Stankey said.

The acquisition will give Socius a broader geographical footprint, as it will retain the CBiz offices in Memphis, Kansas City and northern California. Most of the unit’s employees joined Socius, though Ms. Stankey declined to confirm how many did not.

The acquisition should be a good fit, Ms. Stankey said: Both companies provide IT consulting services, specializing in Microsoft Dynamics and other business software products, and Socius over the years has grown familiar with CBiz’s work and its people.

“We’ve been in the Microsoft Dynamics business for 25 years, and CBiz has been a major player in that business for about as long,” she said.

Both CBiz Inc. and Park Place Technologies confirmed that they are discussing the prospect of Park Place, which is looking at several possible acquisitions, buying the IT staffing unit within CBiz Technologies. The two companies target some of the same customers, but Park Place has yet to decide if the company would be a good fit, said marketing manager Megan Tobin-Jones. The growing company, which employs about 100 in Chagrin Falls and 170 nationwide, is looking at several possible acquisitions, but most are focused on data center maintenance.

Taken together, the three units lost money each of the past two years, and they weren’t big enough to warrant more investment, according to statements CBiz Inc. CEO Steven Gerard made during a conference call regarding the company’s results for the fourth quarter of 2009.

Ms. Novickis described the units as “good businesses” that were hit hard by the recession. “In a down economy … clients are putting off or canceling expansions and upgrades,” she said.

Similar Posts:

• WHR on expansion trail
• Ideal Mobile Storage
• Babcock and Wilcox unit agrees to buy parts of GE Energy division
• Forest City Enterprises names David LaRue to new chief operating officer post
• Leave the Strategizing to the Business Consultants