Managed Services Provider Vertical Solutions Merges with HBK IT

Date September 1, 2021

HBK CPAs & Consultants, a Top 100 accounting firm, and Vertical Solutions, a Pittsburgh-based managed service provider (MSP), today announced they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Upon closing of the transaction, Vertical Solutions will merge operations with HBK IT, an HBK company. The entity (Combined Company) will be renamed “Vertilocity” and operate out of Pittsburgh and Clark, New Jersey, and in the Denver, Colorado area. Vertilocity will be led by Bruce Nelson, president of Vertical Solutions. The Combined Company’s annual gross revenue is estimated currently at $10 million.

“Digital technology is the most impactful disrupter in business today,” said Christopher M. Allegretti, CPA, HBK managing principal and CEO. “Everywhere and in every industry, companies are embracing digital transformation. The Vertical Solutions team is steeped in experience in organizational workflows, systems, and software, and will support our initiative to provide relevant, sophisticated technological support to our clients.”

Founded in 1993 and acquired in 2007 by R.L. Nelson and Associates, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based information systems consulting firm founded in 1986, Vertical Solutions has established itself as a trusted advisor to companies on their technology-based business management systems. The firm was among the earliest entries in the field of managed services providers and offers a vast array of IT-related services and support, including proactive managed IT support, advanced threat protection, Office 365 management and support, technological tools and software designed to address an organization’s specific processes, and hardware procurement and installation. Vertical Solutions has specialized in working with healthcare businesses and institutions, and as such, the merger also serves to enhance HBK’s support of its more than 600 healthcare clients.

“I’m extremely excited about what this merger brings to our team and the clients of both firms,” noted Bruce Nelson, president of Vertical Solutions. “HBK IT has extensive capabilities, and our firms share a vision for technical solutions, that they are built around solving business challenges. Our collective technical expertise along with the financial services offered by HBK combine for a unique, comprehensive, and extremely valuable offering to our current and future clients.”

Vertical Solutions operates out of offices in Pittsburgh and remotely in and around Denver where about one-third of its clients are located. As such, the merger not only extends HBK’s reach in the West, but gives the Combined Company a significant IT services presence in three major markets: Pittsburgh, Denver, and New York Metropolitan Region. It also allows HBK to deliver comprehensive IT and MSP services, including cybersecurity support, to the firm’s accounting and financial services clients throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida.

Since the turn of the century, HBK has been investing in its own digital transformation.

“We have been committed to enhancing our technological capabilities as well as technology-based services to our clients,” Mr. Allegretti said. “Internally, technological capabilities are key to being able to pivot quickly and effectively when it comes to unexpected challenges, as it did in 2020 in response to the unprecedented challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

HBK provides small to mid-market businesses and their owners and operators a wide range of financial solutions, including accounting, tax and audit services; wealth management; business valuation; corporate finance; forensic accounting; litigation support services; and business consulting, including specific expertise in a number of major industries. The CPA firm dates back to 1949 and added its wealth management practice in 2001. The financial professionals of HBK CPAs & Consultants and HBKS Wealth Advisors serve clients locally out of offices in Columbus, Youngstown and Alliance, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Erie, Hermitage, Meadville and Blue Bell, Pennsylvania; Princeton, Cherry Hill and Clark, New Jersey; and Fort Myers, Naples, Stuart, Sarasota and West Palm Beach, Florida. HBK CPAs & Consultants and HBKS Wealth Advisors are both Top 100 rated firms. HBK ranks 52nd on Accounting Today’s list of the largest U.S. CPA firms with firm-wide revenues totaling more than $100 million. 

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