Newark, N.J.-based consulting firm BCT Partners has announced a merger with Lynx Technology Partners, Inc., a Manhattan-headquarted IT consulting concern. Financial details about the deal have yet to be disclosed.
The union of the two minority-owned businesses comes at a time when companies from American Airlines and US Airways to Time Warner Cable and Comcast Corporation are joining forces to capture a greater share of the marketplace. ?We are in the midst of an era of consolidation,? says Randal Pinkett, the 43-year-old Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BCT Partners. ?Whether we like it or not, size matters. While there will always be a place for small businesses, it?s becoming increasingly harder to compete when you?re too small.?
BCT Partners was founded in 2001 by Pinkett, Lawrence Hibbert, Jeffrey Robinson and Dallas Grundy (all Network Journal 40 Under Forty honorees). The company has grown from helping nonprofit organizations use technology to effectively serve their constituencies to providing program management, research and evaluation, technical assistance and information technology services to both government and nonprofit clients. Lynx Technology Partners, founded by Aric K. Perminter in 2008, offers information security and network management services to the private sector and has a wealth of experience in the financial services, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
The decision to merge the two companies was prompted by BCT Partners? desire to expand its information technology practice. ?We wanted to grow an information technology practice area that would be rigorous and very competitive,? says Hibbert, the 42-year-old President and Chief Technology Officer of BCT Partners. ?By going with Lynx?s proven expertise we are able to expand our capability into the information technology and security space in a very strong way.?
The merger, which is expected to be completed by the end of the month, will create a management consulting, information technology and information security firm capable of serving both public- and private-sector organizations. The newly formed firm will be headquartered in Newark, N.J. and operate under the name BCT Partners LLC. Both Pinkett and Hibbert will retain their current roles in the new company. As a significantly larger entity, BCT Partners LLC will be a stronger contender in a consulting industry currently dominated by firms such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Accenture, Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte.
Pinkett, a serial entrepreneur on his fifth business venture, is especially gratified by the BCT Partners-Lynx Technology Partners union. ?You have two black-owned businesses that decided to put aside the egos, the posturing and the politics?all of the things that impede anyone?s ability to work together?and say ?We see strength in numbers and we?re willing to rally around a collective vision and agenda,?? he says. ?One of my proudest accomplishments as an entrepreneur is to see this merger from conversation to consummation.?
