T4G has been purchased for an undisclosed price by national accounting and consulting firm MNP, which wants access to the target company’s expertise in data analytics and machine learning.

Though headquartered in Toronto, T4G is one of the pillars of the Atlantic Canadian tech community with offices in Halifax and Saint John. It was the driving force behind the Big Data Congress, which was a major event in the startup calendar for several years.

Based in Calgary, MNP is one of Canada’s largest national accounting, tax and business consulting firms. It said Monday it is retaining virtually all of T4G’s 100 employees and plans to grow the business, including the teams in Atlantic Canada.

“We’ve been talking to this company for a while,” said T4G Co-Founder and President Geoff Flood in an interview. “We’ve had a lot of suitors over the years and it never felt quite right until about now.”

Flood said the companies have been discussing the merger for about six months. Then the COVID-19 crisis erupted, which Flood said made the outcome of the talks all the more certain, because a larger firm would have more firepower and a bigger client list to cope with the economic uncertainty.  MNP has more than 85 locations and a staff of 5,500.

Flood said there is little overlap in terms of offices and technological expertise, so the companies fit well with one another. And he said the culture of the two firms is also complementary.

“Maybe it’s because they’re westerners,” said Flood, a native of Saint John who divides his time between Toronto and the Maritimes. “Someone – I think he was from Saskatchewan – was saying to me just the other day [his province] is just like Atlantic Canada but without the ocean. We get along very well.”

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MNP said it was attracted to T4G because the target company could help clients succeed through digital transformation and by unlocking the value stored in their enterprise data.

T4G helps businesses to collect, organize, and use their data to gain competitive advantage and increase market share. It focuses on four key areas: data analytics, artificial intelligence, data engineering, and developing intelligent applications and AI tools.

“In this dynamic environment, the needs of Canadian organizations are quickly evolving, so we are constantly working with our clients to better understand how we can best support them,” said Tanya Knight, Executive Vice-President for MNP’s Clients and Services. “The strategic acquisition of T4G reflects our commitment to always look for new ways – and at how new technologies can help – to help our clients reach their full potential.”

MNP’s statement also highlighted that it has been growing in Atlantic Canada with its purchase of Dartmouth-based WBLI in 2017 and further acquisitions in Sydney and St. John’s this year.

“Atlantic Canada is already recognized across Canada as a technology hub and we believe that our acquisition of the T4G business will help us find more opportunities to work with the rich sources of talent that exist in this field, right across the region,” said Jeremy Cole, MNP’s Executive Vice President for Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. “That, in turn, underpins our ability to continue to develop new and innovative ways of helping our clients achieve their objectives.”