Metafore Corp. says its recent acquisition of Liberty Technology Services Ltd. is an indication of profitability and future growth for both companies.
After having worked together on a couple of accounts, the two firms started talking about how they could combine their talents to grow professional
services in the Ontario marketplace, said Bryant Jackson, Metafore president and CEO.
“”Specifically with [Liberty’s] infrastructure and project management work, that works very closely with our infrastructure line of business. We thought that by combining the two of them, we could grow the business and be more effective than we could individually.
“”This also adds more clients for Liberty on the work that they’re doing as well as on the work that we’re doing.””
Although no other imminent acquisitions are planned, “”if something comes along that makes sense for us to grow our core business and fits in with our existing strategies and deliverables, we would look at that,”” Jackson added.
Toronto-based Liberty’s staff automatically joined Mississauga, Ont.-based Metafore’s employee roster. Former Liberty president Larry Baldachin now has a new title: vice-president of business development. “”He’ll be responsible for business development of professional services on a national basis, not just focused here in Ontario,”” Jackson told CDN.
No layoffs resulted from the acquisition, he added. “”[Liberty’s] staff or team basically consists of IT professionals that are involved in project management, infrastructure or portal development. All of those folks are fully engaged and we ideally hope to continue to engage them and grow that line of business.””
As for rumors regarding the recent layoff of a Metafore training manager and the vice-president of applications development making the jump to Microsoft, Jackson wouldn’t confirm anything specific. “”We’ve had turnover in staff but I guess that’s normal – I haven’t found any business that doesn’t have some turnover in staff,”” he said. “”We haven’t had what I would classify as planned layoffs or reduction in headcount.””
Although he said he couldn’t speak for everyone in the company, Jackson said morale seems to be good, since the company appears to be moving forward. “”I don’t think we have a morale issue in any way, shape or form. We’re on plan, and business is good.
“”I don’t have a morale problem.””
Since the discoveries of financial mismanagement at Metafore last October and the acquisition of the remaining shares of the company by Hartco Corp. in January, things have changed for the better, making the time right for the Liberty purchase, Jackson said.
“”The company is much more streamlined today than was back if you look at a year ago,”” he said. “”We have divested of a couple of lines of business that were not profitable or were not core to our business – specifically the communications side. We’ve completed six months of our fiscal year and are ahead of our plan on the bottom line.””
