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Editorial Advisory Board

  • Professor Andrea M. Armani, University of Southern California
  • Ruti Ben-Shlomi, Ph.D., LightSolver
  • James Butler, Ph.D., Hamamatsu
  • Natalie Fardian-Melamed, Ph.D., Columbia University
  • Justin Sigley, Ph.D., AmeriCOM
  • Professor Birgit Stiller, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, and Leibniz University of Hannover
  • Professor Stephen Sweeney, University of Glasgow
  • Mohan Wang, Ph.D., University of Oxford
  • Professor Xuchen Wang, Harbin Engineering University
  • Professor Stefan Witte, Delft University of Technology

UPSTACK Acquires CA Communications’ Telecom Services Division

NEW YORK, Feb. 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UPSTACK, the fastest-growing platform for digital infrastructure, announced today that it has acquired the telecom agency services division of CA Communications Inc., based in Wayzata, Minnesota. CA Communications’ Founder, President and CEO Marc Agar will become an UPSTACK Partner while remaining CA’s chief executive. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Going forward, CA’s agency business will operate under the UPSTACK brand with ongoing support from key CA personnel—including Marc Agar and CA Partner Michael Agar—alongside enhanced resources from UPSTACK. CA Communications will continue to operate its technology resale and managed services lines of businesses under the CA Communications brand.

“Marc Agar can only be described as forward-looking. He is one of the few entrepreneurs to successfully build a telecom agency and a hardware VAR in tandem. In 2006, he was also one of the first agents to understand and embrace the value distribution in technology services,” said UPSTACK Founder and CEO Christopher Trapp. “Today, we share a vision for the future of our industry that combines deep expertise, proven processes and technology enablement into a powerful platform that drives greater value for our customers. I’m excited to welcome Marc to the UPSTACK team.”

Founded in 2002, CA Communications is an IT and telecommunications consulting company that advises businesses on leveraging technology, services and offerings to deliver cost savings and increased profitability. The company’s telecom agency line of business focuses on strategy and sourcing solutions, such as networking, data center, internet access, unified communications as a service (UCaaS), contact center as a service (CCaaS) and cybersecurity.

Marc Agar formed CA in 2002, shortly after his employer, McLeod USA, sold the hardware division where he spent eight years as General Manager and Vice President. Rather than stay with the new owners, Marc Agar set out on his own to sell telecom hardware and created direct agency agreements with telephone companies. Over the years, Marc Agar and Michael Agar have built one of the most loyal customer bases around. With an average client tenure of more than 15 years, CA has earned the ability to sell deep into their customers’ businesses across multiple products and services.

After more than 20 years of steady growth, Marc Agar wanted to take CA’s agency to the next level and serve enterprise clients. “We could have kept going on our own and continued to be successful, but there comes a point where you must decide whether you can scale faster with a partner than alone to service your existing and future clients,” said Marc Agar.

CA entertained several options and ultimately chose UPSTACK. “We wanted to partner with the organization with the greatest momentum, resources and financial backing,” said Marc Agar. “It was clear to us that Chris Trapp and the UPSTACK team were well on their way.”

UPSTACK’s operational resources, technical expertise and partner relationships were key to Marc Agar’s decision.

“With UPSTACK, we have a partner we can grow with dramatically,” said Marc Agar. “Our customers will have access to more resources and the collective mindshare of over 200 technical experts they can tap into to solve any telecommunications need.”

For more information about UPSTACK’s agency investment program, contact partners@upstack.com.

About CA Communications
CA Communications is an IT and telecommunications managed service provider and consultant. The company’s technology experts optimize existing IT portfolios, recommend cost-saving upgrades, scour the marketplace for the best equipment or network service and proactively manage systems on an ongoing basis. CA Communications leverages a vast partnership network of 1,300 firms with more than 10,000 qualified technicians to support businesses anywhere in the country. For more information, visit www.cacommunications.com.

About UPSTACK
UPSTACK is transforming the way digital infrastructure is designed, sourced and sold. Through a powerful combination of the industry’s leading technology experts, dedicated customer experience resources and its own advanced technology ecosystem, UPSTACK uses actionable business intelligence to architect and source customized technology solutions for businesses of all sizes. With UPSTACK, businesses streamline IT architecture, procurement and ongoing management by tapping into a single source for mission-critical technology advisory services. UPSTACK’s expertise includes colocation and data center, network connectivity, SD-WAN, unified communications, cloud contact center, private and public cloud, security, mobile, business continuity and IoT. For more information, visit us at www.upstack.com.

Media Contact:
Khali Henderson
Senior Partner
BuzzTheory (for UPSTACK)
press@upstack.com
khenderson@buzztheory.com
480.848.6726


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