Dive Brief:
- Managed network services provider Coeo Solutions acquired S-Net Communications aiming to bulk up support for mid-market clients, the companies said in a Monday announcement.
- Private equity firm Riata Capital Group, which invested in Coeo last year, funded the deal, and Q Advisors advised S-Net.
- S-Net brings expertise in the hospitality and restaurant verticals, along with a contact center platform. “Together, we are a more complete platform for mid-market businesses that need a partner who can handle complexity and stay accountable over the long term,” Coeo CEO Frank Ruffolo said in the announcement.
Dive Insight:
Both Illinois-based companies are much smaller than network MSP heavyweights such as Granite and Spectrotel, but their executives relish their boutique identities.
“When you're a larger customer, everybody's going to smother you with attention,” Coeo CRO Jim Glackin told Channel Dive. “The larger providers can't give those mid-market customers the support they need, and these are the ones that are usually the most resource-constrained.”
MSPs and telecom aggregators promote their technology prowess, but Glackin said the bells and whistles play second fiddle to the blocking and tackling of customer support.
“Everybody has their own little secret sauce that they put in the SD-WAN or whatever it is, but, at the end of the day, it's execution,” he said.
Glackin said Coeo has been good at keeping customers around and expanding existing contracts. The company has a revenue retention rate of 108% – it retained its 2025 customer revenue and increased it through cross-selling.
Glackin said Coeo needed to grow by acquisition without losing its culture. He said numerous boutique aggregators have lost their touch in the last five years, as private equity platforms and national broadband providers acquire them or the sheer strain of organic growth takes its toll.
“As some of these companies grow, the model breaks,” he said. “The support starts to suffer. They outgrow their ability to continue to deliver at the expected level.”
Glackin said he sees little overlap between the companies’ channel organizations. “I can combine them and double the size of my channel,” he said. “I can provide, immediately, additional coverage for the channel overnight, without having to go through the process of hiring, training and onboarding new channel resources.”
Coeo has its roots in SIP trunking but has been moving toward managed network, IT and cybersecurity in recent years. Glackin said about 40% of revenue comes from voice, which includes SIP, Microsoft Teams and WebEx Calling integration and its proprietary unified communications platform. Another 50% of Coeo revenue comes from managed network, SD-WAN and circuit aggregation.
