NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Roughly 25 years after launching Zycron Inc. fresh out of college, Darrell S. Freeman has sold one of Nashville’s largest information technology consulting firms in a more than $20 million deal.
Zycron is now a division of Plano, Texas-based publicly traded BG Staffing Inc., one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing temporary staffing companies.
“You can start with nothing and build value,” Freeman said, reflecting on growth of Zycron, which he started with several thousand dollars in savings plus credit cards. “This is the typical American dream.”
Zycron is a Nashville entrepreneurial success story. Launched from a one-employee office the size of a closet, the company grew to $38 million in revenues for last year. Zycron provides employees who help large corporate and government clients - such as hospital chain HCA, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Nashville Electric Service - with implementing their information technology plans.
Freeman said joining BG Staffing expands Zycron’s service offerings into new areas such as helping clients with implementing Oracle and PeopleSoft business software applications.
“We have similar philosophies in taking great care of our people,” he said, adding that most of Zycron’s more than 300 employees, including President Steven Howard Smith, will stay with with the acquired company.
Freeman sold Zycron for $19 million in cash plus another $1 million for unregistered shares of common stock in his privately held company. He can also earn up to another $3 million more in the next two years based on performance of Zycron, where his title has changed from executive chairman to executive managing director. Smith’s title is now managing director, reporting to Freeman.
The sale to BG Staffing doesn’t include Zycron Latin America, a separate company Freeman started eight years ago to handle software development offshore for U.S. companies. Nashville-based Zycron Latin America’s staff is mostly based in the nation of Colombia, where the software development work is performed.
Freeman, who grew up in Chattanooga, recalled coming to the Nashville area with “nothing” as the first person in his family to attend college. A year after graduating from Middle Tennessee State University, he launched Zycron. The then-fledgling company’s first large engagement involved work for a company called BTG, which Zycron later bought out of its private contractor position with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Beyond Zycron, Freeman’s other business ventures include being co-owner of Pinnacle Construction Partners and a co-founder of Franklin-based Reliant Bank. He’s also lead director on the board of Brentwood-based substance abuse treatment services provider American Addiction Centers Inc.
The first two-term chairman of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce also just became chairman of S3 Asset Management, a technology and medical equipment recycling company in which Freeman owns a 30 percent stake. Rod McDaniel, a 29-year-old African American man who grew up in public housing, is CEO of S3 Asset Management.
Ralph Schulz, CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, said Freeman’s mentoring of McDaniel reflects his belief in giving back, having himself benefited from guidance from successful business people.
“Darrell’s made his own success because he saw opportunity, he seized it, he built a team and then they drove the dream,” Schulz said. “The great thing about Nashville is Nashville supported him. Darrell mentors people and he has been mentored.”
Zycron is the eighth acquisition for BG Staffing, whose previous deals involved staffing niches such as front office and maintenance workers for apartment communities and finance, accounting and related support personnel, along with skilled information technology professionals with expertise in Oracle, project management and other skills.
With Zycron offices in Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga, BG Staffing now has 56 offices in 25 U.S. states. Last year, BG Staffing generated $254 million in revenues.
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Information from: The Tennessean, https://www.tennessean.com
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