OREANDA-NEWS. Ricoh announced that the company has reached an agreement to buy mindSHIFT Technologies Inc., a leading provider of managed IT, cloud, data center and professional services to small and mid-sized organizations, from Best Buy Co., Inc. The acquisition is the latest strategic investment by Ricoh to expand and deepen its services portfolio.

mindSHIFT, a top Managed Services provider in the U.S. for small and mid-sized businesses (SMB), works with more than 6,900 clients in major markets throughout the country. The company's IT Services capabilities and comprehensive Managed Services offerings will help Ricoh continue to drive value to existing customers through expanded services offerings as well as support Ricoh's growth as a provider of IT Services.

The addition of mindSHIFT's nationwide expertise and customer service professionals will bring a wide array of benefits to the customers Ricoh is currently serving through its proven services organization of more than 8,000 specialists.

"With the addition of these highly skilled engineering and customer-facing resources to our existing services organization, Ricoh can now offer a greatly enhanced range of services for its customers," said Martin Brodigan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ricoh Americas Corporation. "We are very much looking forward to working with our small and medium-sized customers to maximize these combined capabilities to their greatest benefit."

"At mindSHIFT, we are proud to have the most comprehensive IT Services portfolio for small and mid-sized business customers in the industry and are excited to become a part of the Ricoh family. With Ricoh's keen focus on business customers, their leadership position in the small and mid-sized business space and our common philosophy in delivering innovative ways to solve technology challenges, we believe we can deliver even more value to customers together," said Mona Abutaleb, President and Chief Executive Officer of mindSHIFT Technologies. "We're excited about what this acquisition means to our customers; the impact of having a well-respected brand like Ricoh tied to our market leadership will bring great benefits to current and new customers around the country."

mindSHIFT brings their experience in the general business market, in addition to legal, healthcare, financial services, associations and non-profits, and education markets, areas complementary to Ricoh's proven expertise and experience.

mindSHIFT will continue to operate under its current name, management team and capabilities, which currently include 650 employees at offices in Boston, Chicago, Long Island, N.Y., Minneapolis, Morrisville, N.C., New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas, TX.

The acquisition is expected to close in February 2014 at which time mindSHIFT will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh.