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Head hunters join: KOP’s SolomonEdwardsGroup buys Wayne-based Quad656

Quad656, led by founders Randi Goltz, Lori Marcus, Sheila Matthews and Patti Zajick, adds expertise in insurance and information technology company staffing, while SolomonEdwards offers the smaller firm its in-house support services, such as IT, marketing and accounting.

(From left) Lori Marcus, Patti Zajick, Sheila Matthews, Randy Goltz, founders of Quad656, now part of SolomonEdwardsGroup
(From left) Lori Marcus, Patti Zajick, Sheila Matthews, Randy Goltz, founders of Quad656, now part of SolomonEdwardsGroupRead moreQuad656

SolomonEdwardsGroup, the King of Prussia-based professional services firm, says it has purchased Quad656, based around the corner at 656 Swedesford Rd. in Wayne, and that the four women who ran it will join the larger company, along with their teams.

The combined firms have annual billings of about $90 million. SolomonEdwards employs about 200 in eight big-city offices from Boston to San Francisco, including 75 at its Drummers Lane headquarters, plus about 400 employees assigned to work at clients. Quad656 adds 25 employees in Wayne and Mount Laurel, plus about 50 assigned staff.

SolomonEdwards boss Edward Baumstein, who was vacationing in Jerusalem, declined to disclose the price. He is controlling owner of SolomonEdwards, with a minority investment from Radnor-based Boathouse Capital. Baumstein said his company financed the deal, with backing from Cadence Bank.

Baumstein said Quad656, led by founders Randi Goltz, Lori Marcus, Sheila Matthews, and Patti Zajick, adds expertise in accounting/finance, as well as insurance and IT, staffing, while SolomonEdwards offers the smaller firm its larger in-house support services — “IT, marketing, accounting, and human resources infrastructure, which they are very excited about," to help serve more and larger clients.

The acquired firm looks forward to being part of “a motivated parent company with the infrastructure and resources to grow the business,” founding partner Matthews said in a statement. She called the acquisition “a catalyst for fresh thinking” that will speed new business.

Baumstein says his enlarged firm is among the few “middle-market” competitors, larger than local “boutique” staffing firms, smaller than such multinational giants as Randstad.

SolomonEdwards sees itself as “executing” plans created by clients and their strategy consultants, by finding people needed for new or transitional roles. “Everybody needs a bookkeeper,” as well as underwriters, financial analysts, and other positions in the $150- to $250-an-hour range, Baumstein said. “It’s our job to take the strategy from the strategists’ blackboard to make it the DNA of the company.”

Like the Quad656 founders, Baumstein previously worked for Philadelphia-based Acsys Resources, which through a series of mergers became an Atlanta-based public company in the late 1990s, and is now part of Netherlands-based Vedior N.V. Baumstein said he started SolomonEdwards in 1999. Quad656 opened two years later.

Baumstein expects the acquired firm will lose its current designation as a female-owned contractor, an advantage when it’s a requirement in filling some government and corporate contracts. The Wayne office of Quad656 will move around the corner to SolomonEdwards’ Drummers Lane offices.