Tech companies foresee ownership changes

As competition continues to increase and companies battle to win new customers, executives of technology companies are not ruling out a possible change of ownership in the next decade, reports a survey conducted by Chicago-based Grant Thornton LLP, the accounting, tax and business advisory firm.

According to the Grant Thornton Survey of U.S. Business Leaders, 42 percent of technology respondents expect a change in company ownership in the next 10 years, while only 30 percent of all companies nationally feel the same. Among those who expect this change, 39 percent believe a merger is most likely, while 30 percent anticipate a trade sale.

The majority of these companies (61 percent) are already starting to make preparations for such a change, with 79 percent already identifying their personal/business needs, as well seeking out external business and/or tax advice. In addition, 64 percent of respondents have also upgraded their corporate governance/internal procedures and communicated with their staff in anticipation of this process.

Roper buys Colorado wireless company

Duluth-based Roper Industries Inc. acquired Louisville, Colo.-based Inovonics Wireless Corp. for $45 million.

Inovonics makes 900MHz radio frequency (RF) products for security applications, water sub-metering and remote temperature monitoring applications. Roper makes analytical instrumentation, industrial controls and fluid-handling equipment.

Raidtec USA now called Vista Storage

Atlanta-based storage product maker Raidtec USA Inc. has changed its name to Vista Storage. The new Vista Storage name and moniker occurs after a Raidtec USA management buyout from Raidtec Holdings Ltd. in 2004. Raidtec Holdings is now a subsidiary of UK-based Plasmon PLC.

Vista Storage will continue to supply Raidtec and other data storage networking products in the US, North, Central, South American, and Asia Pacific markets. The new name and transition will not affect current Raidtec customers. Vista Storage will continue operating out of both the Atlanta headquarters and Sacramento, Calif.

Internap increases data-center space

Atlanta-based high-speed Internet connectivity provider Internap Network Services Corp. will expand some of its U.S. data centers and will be gaining new space in New York to keep up with customer demand, the company said.

Internap wants to enlarge existing data center facilities in Atlanta, Boston, New York and Seattle by up to 50 percent, and it has signed a sublease agreement for Sprint's eSolutions Data Center in New York.

Internap currently owns and manages seven facilities in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York, Seattle and Jersey City, N.J. Internap also subleases space in 27 other locations in various partnerships.

The Sprint data center will give Internap more data center space and the ability to offers customers a direct connection to its multi-carrier intelligent routing technology.

Survey: CIOs see security as job one

Technology executives now see enhancing network security as job one, a new survey shows.

Thirty-five percent of chief information officers (CIOs) polled by Menlo Park, Calif.-based Robert Half Technology said improvements to network security are their highest priority. Operating-system upgrades were the second-most frequent response, cited by 16 percent of executives.

The national poll includes responses from more than 1,400 CIOs from a stratified random sample of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees.

Among Atlanta-area executives, network security was cited as the highest priority by 27 percent, followed by CRM (16 percent) and OS upgrades (14 percent).

Dorian updates Fortress Desktop

Atlanta-based Dorian Software Creations Inc. released Fortress Desktop 4.0, a server and workstation security management software.

Formerly known as Fortress-NT, Fortress Desktop provides an additional layer of security around servers and workstations both on the physical network and those notebooks and tablets away from the enterprise.

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