As of Thursday, two of the top companies serving the MSP community become one as Kaseya has closed on its acquisition of Datto and turned its former rival into “Datto, A Kaseya Company.” The merger of the two companies, which is arguably the most significant change in the MSP business, brings together two key players while putting pressure on rivals such as ConnectWise, N-able and NinjaOne.
Competitors of Kaseya and Datto have raised concerns over the combination of the two companies. John Pagliuca, president and CEO of Burlington, Mass.-based N-able, for instance, told CRN in May that the two companies had different strategies that could impact how smoothly the merger will go.
“Historically, Datto did a very good job being MSP-first and being pretty focused on the channel and their MSP community,” Pagliuca said at the time. “Kaseya had a different strategy. Kaseya is not an MSP-pure shop, and I think that‘s where a lot of the concern is. Will the MSP channel now not be the sole focus of the new Kaseya-Datto entity? I think that’s where a lot of the concerns have been. And, frankly, it‘s not my place really to say if that concern is valid or not. It’s just the reality.”
The reality, according to Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola, is that Kaseya has set plans to make the new combined company a success. This includes retaining Datto’s top executives and other key management people, a gradual melding of the combined account management team even as it adds 1,000 new account managers by year-end, increasing investment in R&D, and taking advantage of key Datto product lines, particularly an often-overlooked networking business that Voccola said compares to the best that Cisco Systems has to offer.
The MSP community is in for a whole new ride going forward. CRN has identified six key things to know about Kaseya’s acquisition of Datto.