‘We don’t buy anything that’s not profitable because then how do you do your multiples? We’re not interested in anything that’s distressed. And while some companies say they’re not profitable because they’re in growth mode, we don’t buy any of those. I don’t know how those people pay the bills. You gotta make money and pay the bills. Everything we buy has got cash flow,’ says The 20 MSP Founder and CEO Tim Conkle.

The 20 MSP, a managed services provider that has grown quickly via 35 acquisitions since 2022, Tuesday said it has acquired iCoreIT, the managed IT services division of iCoreConnect, a publicly listed cloud-based software and technology company.

Tim Conkle, founder and CEO of Plano, Texas-based The 20 MSP, told CRN the acquisition of iCoreIT will help bolster his company’s already solid healthcare business.

“We’ve got a pretty good concentration in medical right now,” Conkle (pictured) said. “We’re picking up another MSP that will give us a little bit more footprint in the medical

vertical. Twenty percent of our company right now is medical. This acquisition should push us to 20 or 22 percent focus on the medical vertical.”

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The 20 MSP’s business model is unique and has two parts. The first is a group of member MSPs called The 20 Group that sign on with The 20 MSP to use the company’s tools, sales processes, and operating procedures to run their own business.

The second piece is The 20 MSP’s acquisition model, which identifies MSPs within The 20 Group as potential acquisition targets and then acquires them. The owners of nearly all the acquired MSPs have remained with The 20 MSP.

The 20 is acquiring the iCoreIT healthcare business from iCoreConnect, which is a publicly listed cloud-based software and technology company. Conkle said The 20 is purchasing the company and taking it private.

iCoreIT was one of two MSPs that iCoreConnect had acquired in the past, Conkle said.

“They’re a SaaS company and shouldn’t have bought it in the first place,” he said. “Yeah, I’m just being honest. Now they’re just divesting themselves of that piece of it.”

With iCoreIT, The 20 is gaining an additional 10 to 15 employees, Conkle said. All the employees of the organization are staying after the acquisition, including the CEO, he said.

“Pretty much, that’s kind of been our thing,” he said. “We’ve kept every employee of our acquisitions. We’ve had a couple owners retire now over time, but there’s tons of work for us. I mean, our organic growth is growing really, really fast. So we need the people.”

iCoreIT has two locations, including one in Phoenix, Ariz., and the other in Charlotte, N.C., Conkle said.

“It brings me a lot of new customers,” he said. “You know, we always like new customers.”

Conkle declined to discuss the purchase price for iCoreIT, the acquisition of which closed Tuesday. However, he said the organization is profitable.

“We don’t buy anything that’s not profitable because then how do you do your multiples?” he said. “We’re not interested in anything that’s distressed. And while some companies say they’re not profitable because they’re in growth mode, we don’t buy any of those. I don’t know how those people pay the bills. You gotta make money and pay the bills. Everything we buy has got cash flow.”

Conkle said iCoreIT came to his attention as a potential acquisition because it was founded by the owner of another company that was acquired earlier by The 20.

“This is what’s crazy,” he said. “I bought a guy’s company that started a new one which was acquired by a public company. So I’m literally buying a member’s old company back with an extra office in North Carolina, because that was the second place they bought. It’s crazy the connection that weaves its way through this thing. So we got us a seat at the table. And we won the battle. There were other companies out there looking at acquiring it as well. But we were just the nicest people. Or maybe our dollar sign looked better, I don’t know.”