MCS Buys Barsa Distribution Systems

Published: October 19, 2009

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Maximum Computer Systems has announced that it has acquired the Power Systems and System x server and application and systems software distribution business of Barsa Consulting.

Barsa Consulting is, of course, the Purchase, New York, AS/400 consulting and distribution business founded by Al Barsa, who passed away in April 2008 while at the COMMON midrange trade show. Since that time, Barsa Consulting has continued to operate, with Al's wife, Sue Barsa, serving as president.

Being a privately held company, Barsa Consulting was pretty quiet about its own business, but in a statement put out by MCS, which has acquired the distribution business and related customer lists of the Barsa company, we learn that in 2008, despite Al's passing, the company posted more than $10 million in sales and that it had a customer base of more than 200 AS/400 sites in the big cities of New York and Washington, as well as throughout towns in New England, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

According to Joan Steppe-Kandler, who is the office manager and accountant at Barsa Consulting, the company had 12 employees plus lots of contractors that were hired as deals came in; after the sale of the distribution business, the consulting side of the house will continue to operate with four people. Wilson Perez, who worked for Barsa for many years, will continue to be the lead consultant, and Sue Barsa will continue to run the company as president. Barsa Consulting will also continue to distribute Jim Sloan's TAA Tools, which it has done for a long time.

It is not clear how many of the Barsa employees are being picked up by MCS. Philip Maehr, president at MCS, had not returned calls for comment at press time.

"This acquisition fits perfectly into our growth strategy,” Maehr said in a statement announcing the deal. "By combining the skills of two veteran IBM business partners with complementary skills, we strengthen our market penetration as MCS concentrated in the SMB marketplace, while Barsa Distribution was skilled in serving medium to enterprise level customers."

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