Alaska Communications bolsters IT capabilities with TekMate acquisition

Alaska Communications is scaling its IT and managed service capabilities by acquiring the remaining 51 percent stake it did not own in TekMate, one of the state's major IT services firms.

The deal follows the 2010 acquisition it made for a 49 percent stake in TekMate.

A key focus of this deal is to sharpen its offerings for business customers. Alaska Communications will bolster its existing broadband product offerings like Ethernet with a host of managed network and IT solutions.

By completing this deal, TekMate's 60 employees will join Alaska Communications' managed services group, making what the telco claims will be "one of the largest managed services organizations in Alaska."

While TekMate has been a profitable company that generated $6.8 million in 2013, Alaska Communications said it "expects to incur certain integration costs in 2014 associated with the transaction, which will offset TekMate financial performance." As a result, the acquisition won't "materially" increase the telco's EBITDA or free cash flow this year.

Building up its managed service and overall business service capabilities has been a growing priority for Alaska Communications.

In 2013, the telco appointed Sprint (NYSE: S) veteran Randy Ritter as its senior vice president, managed services and extended its hosted VoIP service to large businesses and multisite enterprises that reside in south central Alaska.

For more:
- see the release

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