Maplesoft's Manhattan office will include five or six people that will represent several streams of the Ottawa company's business, including IT and systems integration and reselling, as well as the placement of IT consultants and professionals, says president Paul Butcher.
"We are intent on being in New York," says Mr. Butcher, a Mitel veteran who joined Maplesoft in July to expand the company's reseller relationship along the eastern seaboard.
The privately held firm is targeting $1 billion in annual revenues and says reselling, as well as a presence in the United States, are two key factors in reaching that goal.
The New York office will be Maplesoft's first in the United States; the company has several offices across Canada and a hockey outfitting subsidiary in Missouri.
"One of the benefits of (opening an office) organically from the get-go is it's absolutely in line with what we're doing."
The plans mark a shift in strategy from when Maplesoft announced its intention to acquire Rochester's Serverware Corp. in August.
"We reached a commercial agreement with Serverware subject to due diligence," Mr. Butcher says. "We went through a due diligence process and discovered some things that caused us some concern. Upon reflection, we decided it wasn't the right fit for Maplesoft."
The decision was made in late September, he adds, declining to discuss further specifics of Maplesoft's decision to abort the takeover.
Serverware, which has offices in Manhattan, Rochester and Albany, had approximately 20 to 30 employees while it was engaged with Maplesoft in takeover negotiations, Mr. Butcher says. He adds the company's Oracle and Symantec reseller relationships were key attractors for the now-aborted deal.
There are indications that Maplesoft's decision to pull out of the deal is having a material impact on Serverware. Two New York-state based employees told OBJ workers received layoff notices last week.
When reached by phone, Serverware president Jim Kegelmeyer declined immediate comment.
In June, Maplesoft also said it was targeting an acquisition of an unnamed Chicago firm to grow its U.S. business. It planned to fund the purchase through its consulting annuity business, but further details were not disclosed as the takeover was still in negotiations.
On the Canadian side, Maplesoft recently opened offices in Calgary and Montreal and will soon open doors in Halifax. It also acquired Markham-based Parameter Driven Solutions, a Sun Microsystems reseller, in 2010.
The company says one of is biggest successes in recent years was securing reselling agreements with Oracle and Terry Matthews-owned Wesley Clover. It showcases available technologies from providers, such as Benbria, at a facility just across the road from Maplesoft's Westboro office on Churchill Avenue.
