Rent-to-own News - High Touch continues to acquire out-of-state technology companies

Wichita-based High Touch recently closed on the acquisitions of sister businesses in Dallas, UniComData and Dallas Data Center. That followed the Jan. 1 purchase of NewBase LLC, a small web-development company in Wichita.

The acquisitions help High Touch further expand its regional presence and its services.

In 2011, High Touch bought Attain Technologies LLC in Denver. That followed a 2010 purchase of Kansas City-based IT Pros Corp, according to the Wichita Business Journal.

High Touch now has offices in Wichita, Kansas City, Denver, Dallas and Corpus Christi, Texas.

High Touch President Wayne Chambers says by buying UniComData and Dallas Data Center, High Touch is able to offer more data-center management services, such as off-site server storage. The deal, he says, also gives High Touch a larger presence in the Dallas market to serve an existing client base as well as reach new customers among small- and medium-sized businesses.

High Touch also plans to incorporate more web-development services with its purchase of NewBase.

With the deals, High Touch has added 21 employees. The company now has 185 full-time employees and 20 to 25 contractors.

Chambers says High Touch is in the process of fully assimilating employees from the acquired businesses into its operations. UniComData owner Tim Freeze becomes the division vice president for High touch’s Dallas operations with the close of the purchase.

In UniComData, High Touch gets an established company that has been in business in the Dallas area for 22 years and has three data centers there.

Freeze says he saw opportunities to provide complementary services by aligning with High Touch.

High Touch’s purchases are not the only recent example of a technology company expanding its services through acquisition.

On Tuesday, Cybertron International Inc. in Wichita purchased another local company, The Bill Guy Technology Solutions, to expand its managed-services division, CybertronIT.

Bill Guy owner Bill Ramsey, who is now a part owner of Cybertron and its chief technology officer, says technology companies use mergers and acquisitions to quickly expand their presence, often nationally, rather than growing organically.

He says joining with Cybertron allowed him to substantially expand his company’s book of business with national clients, something that could have otherwise taken years to do.