Another Acquisition in Silicon Valley North
In 2010, well-known local entrepreneur Ian McLaren, launched Headwall Software. The company creates applications for large corporations, while helping to manage various aspects of their computer networks remotely. Big-name clients and industry partners including RIM, Google, Innovapost, Avaya, Bell Canada and IBM, helped the organization generate sales of $500,000 in its first year and over $2M the following fiscal.
Dave Booth – CEO and President of BackOffice Associates LLC – developed an interest in Headwall Software late last year when he contacted McLaren to get his views on managing a large workforce. Having known each other since the late 1990’s when they worked together at Digital Equipment Corporation, their conversation soon turned to how they could grow both companies by teaming up.
“We quickly realized the fastest way to develop both our markets was to combine,” said Booth. “We have an extremely rich portfolio of software and intellectual property, while Headwall can access a fantastic community of software developers in Ottawa.”
BackOffice officially acquired Headwall on June 30, in a deal with undisclosed terms. Although this means the end of another stand-alone Canadian firm, Booth anticipates adding several hundred jobs in the next couple of years to their new Kanata location.
McLaren commented, “Being a part of BackOffice Associates creates an ideal synergy, particularly given that we currently serve clients including some of the top U.S.-based, multi-national companies. Our software architecture and development expertise, combined with BackOffice’s data governance and other solutions, will enable us to provide a comprehensive offering to our customers.”
One of our co-founding partners, Debbie Weinstein, and firm associate, Joelle Gogo, worked on the Headwall/BackOffice deal. On behalf of the entire team here at LaBarge Weinstein LLP, they would like to congratulate Ian on the success he has achieved thus far and on all the great things to come from this amalgamation.
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