Park Place Technologies and Service Express are merging to create a datacentre services behemoth with over 3,000 staff.
Having invested in Service Express last year, Warburg Pincus yesterday announced it is grabbing a majority stake in Service Express’ larger peer Park Place from existing backer Charlesbank.
After the transaction closes, it will merge the two brands, which both boast a strong UK presence (ranking 47th and 75th in Oxygen 250 2025, respectively).
Here are five notable nuggets about the deal…
Not Park Place’s first mega pact
Park Place is no stranger to datacentre services mega-mergers, having joined forces with similar-sized peer Curvature in 2020.
That deal, which came a year after Charlesbank invested in 2019, doubled Park Place’s headcount to around 2,300.
Multi-vendor maintenance, managed infrastructure and hardware services specialist Service Express is one of the few other giants in the space.
Park Place CEO to take combined reins
Although the deal has been engineered by Service Express backer Warburg Pincus, it is Park Place’s CEO, Chris Adams, who will take the helm of the enlarged business.
It will have over 3,000 employees and over 25,000 customers across North America, Europe, Asia and South America.
“The rapid evolution of datacentre technology presents a historic opportunity, and I am confident that bringing together Service Express and Park Place will allow us to capitalize on this moment,” Adams stated.
“I am honoured to lead both companies into this next phase of growth.”
Beefy British presence
The combined outfit will boast a beefy presence in the UK thanks in part to their recent M&A exploits.
Park Place’s calendar 2023 UK accounts show a headcount of 613 and revenues of £105.8m. In a move it claimed moved it “up the food chain”, it acquired £50m-revenue, Birmingham-based IBM partner CSI in May.
Service Express owes its UK presence to its 2020 acquisitions of local peers Blue Chip Customer Engineering and ICC Group.
Its calendar 2023 UK revenues hit £69.9m, with headcount sitting at 290, local accounts show.
Service Express CEO Ron Alvesteffer will serve as a Director on the combined company’s Board.
“I am committed to supporting Chris, and am excited and ready to transition to a Board Director after close,” Alvesteffer stated.
Warburg Pincus’ majority investment is being supported by a “significant minority investment” by Temasek. The timing of the transaction closing is subject to customary regulatory approvals.
