Synoptek made waves Friday with its announcement that it had acquired Pay Per Cloud (PPC) of Sacramento and Rocket Science Consulting of San Francisco.

But M&A is nothing new for the Irvine, Calif.-based managed service provider, which has in fact completed five acquisitions since 2012. Here's Synoptek CEO Tim Britt's take on the MSP market and acquisition strategy.

In order for Synoptek to be interested in an acquisition, Britt said the deal has to meet at least one of three criteria: it has to allow the MSP to extend into a new geographic market, expand within an existing market or offer the company new capabilities.

When entering a new region, Britt said Synoptek likes to buy one of the three largest MSPs in the area so the company can instantly become a market leader.

Both the PPC and Rocket Science acquisitions allowed Synoptek to expand in markets where it already had a presence as well as gain new capabilities, Britt said. 

Specifically, PPC will bring cloud provisioning and automation capabilities that Synoptek didn't have pre-acquisition, while Rocket Science will provide a top-notch application support team as well as deep ties to San Francisco's venture capital community.  

Britt sees the managed services market as unsustainably fragmented, with no one company occupying more than one or two percent market share either nationally or within a particular region.

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