Buffalo Grove, Ill., Green Bay, Wis., and Duluth, Minn.—
ACP CreativIT/Camera Corner Connecting Point, a technology solutions provider based in Buffalo Grove, Ill., and Green Bay, Wis., announced its merger today with Duluth, Minn., based Citon Computer Corporation and its sister companies—NetTel, NetGuard and TLX Communications.
Founded 28 years ago, Citon is a market leader in the small- and medium-sized business segment, with a broad suite of solutions and services, including IT hardware, cloud services such as data center hosting, managed services, professional services including data cabling and installation, on-premise and video security offerings, as well as on-premise and hosted phone systems. With offices in Duluth, Minn., and Eau Claire, Wis., as well as additional presence in the Twin Cities and Brainerd Lakes, Citon continues to be led by its founding partners, Steven Dastoor and Sean Dean, and is guided by a mission and belief that, “Securely and responsibly leveraging technology enables people and organizations to thrive.”
Citon builds upon ACP and CCCP’s strategy of continuing to grow through acquisitions of companies sharing a common platform, backbone and integrated organization, while preserving the local customer, employee and community roots that have fueled Citon’s success. Taken together, the businesses will have over 130 years of founder/family ownership heritage, more than $3.5 billion of IT products and solutions delivered since inception, $300 million of annual revenue and nearly 300 employees.
In announcing the decision to merge, Steven Dastoor, who will continue as Citon’s CEO and join the combined company’s Board of Directors, stated, “We have been approached by many potential partners over the years, but only this finally felt right to us. We are excited about the benefits of scale to our customers and employees, yet the opportunity to preserve and build upon our culture and community footprint.”
Added Sean Dean, who will also continue as a senior executive in the combined company, “We see many opportunities for ACP and CCCP to make us stronger, and in turn lots that Citon can bring to the table to shape our joint future together as well. We see this merger as having the potential to be a textbook case of one plus one equals more than five.”
All Citon and sister company employees will stay on as part of the merger, with continued commitment to and expected hiring growth in all locations.
CEO of CCCP Rick Chernick was elated by the merger, stating, “I have known Steven and Sean for two decades, and I am hard-pressed to think of better partners we could be welcoming into our family of companies.”
CEO of ACP CreativIT Scott Dunsire, who oversees the organization as a whole, added, “We are pleased to welcome Citon, its sister companies, Steven and Sean, and all of their employees to the ACP CreativIT team. We are excited about what we can all do together.”
The controlling shareholder of the combined entity is The Zaf Group, the family office of Mike and Robin Zafirovski, which aims to partner with well-run family/founder-led businesses and own them in perpetuity.
Founder of The Zaf Group and Chairman of ACP CreativIT Mike Zafirovski noted, “We feel a strong alignment of values with Citon—they demonstrate that if you take care of your employees and customers, good things happen.”
Partner at The Zaf Group and Board Member of ACP CreativIT Dan Braga added, “We have been lucky to meet with more than 200 terrific owners and founders over many years, but our conversations with Steven and Sean over the last two and a half years have really stood out. We look forward to doing continued great things with them and their team.”
Customer, vendor, media, and community inquiries can be brought to:
Alease Kuntz, Director of Marketing & Corporate Communications
alease.kuntz@cccp.com
(920) 438-0379