AT-NET Services

The purchase of an information technology company in the District of Columbia area represents a giant growth step for Charlotte-based AT-NET Services, Inc. Jeffrey King, president of AT-NET, said he spent eight months negotiating the deal to buy Intelligix, Inc., a 7-year- old IT firm based in Herndon, VA. Neither King nor Dan Blake, president of Intelligix, disclosed financial terms of the transaction that closed on January 26. Blake will remain with AT-NET as senior engineer in the Herndon office. "Intelligix is a lot like us," King said, "but they have some specializations with Microsoft that we did not have." AT-NET can round out its business telephone offerings by adding the Intelligix capabilities with Microsoft customer relationship management (CRM) to its existing strength in Cisco Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), King said. Intelligix has achieved Gold Partner status with Microsoft while AT-NET is a Cisco Certified Premier partner. "We are in an exciting technology revolution," King said. "We can have cell phones, office phones, customer databases, accounting systems, video conferencing and email share the same data and interoperate seamlessly." Using voice, video and data on a single platform allows customers to work more efficiently and cut costs, King said. AT-NET will continue to focus on its core competencies, which are voice, data and security, he added. King praised the Charlotte office of BB&T and banker Doug Bowman for facilitating the purchase of Intelligix. With the acquisition, AT-NET operates offices and data centers in the Greater Charlotte area and Raleigh, as well as Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. It has nearly 400 clients, primarily in the United States, China and Italy. Founded in 1998, AT-NET produced $3.2 million in sales for 2006, up from $2 million in 2005, King said. Revenue for 2007 will top $6 million, he added.