In a move to diversify its offerings to IT professionals, Internet Corp. has acquired Intermedia Group Inc., of Westborough, Mass., which runs IT conferences and provides consulting and event management services.

The Darien, Conn.-based internet.com is the parent company of atNewYork.com.

Terms were not disclosed. Internet.com chairman and CEO Alan Meckler said the acquisition will be accretive to cash earnings by the second quarter of 2001.

Intermedia Group, which has 25 staffers, was founded in 1998 by Eliot Weinman, a tech entrepreneur who in 1989 started Software Productivity Group. He sold the publishing, consulting and analyst services firm in 1996.

Internet.com runs a network of 170 news and information Web sites aimed at IT pros. The company also produces more than 300 e-mail newsletters, 400 online discussion forums and 100 moderated e-mail discussion lists.

The Intermedia Group acquisition boosts internet.com's slate of Internet-related seminars, which were launched during the past year, and helps the company move into the market research and consulting businesses.

"We have come to understand that our over 5 million unique monthly users and over 5.6 million subscribers to our e-mail newsletters are natural buyers of services related to Internet and IT topics," Meckler said. "Seminars are clearly one of those services. We realize we can leverage this professional readership into these events and we can do this efficiently and with minimal promotion worldwide, as we now have operations in 20 countries."

The acquisition comes at a time when content-related companies such as internet.com are feeling the downturn in ad spending by technology companies.

Meckler called the slowdown affecting the industry "severe," a condition that led that many advertisers to defer spending decisions in February and early March.

Internet.com downgraded its first-quarter revenue outlook Thursday, saying revenues are expected to be in the range of $13 million to $15 million, down from a previous estimate of $15 million to $17 million.

Second quarter revenues are expected to be in line with previous company guidance of $17 million to $19 million, while third-quarter revenues are estimated to fall between $19 million and $21 million, slightly higher than a previous estimate.

Meckler touted internet.com's diversification efforts as one way the company is weathering the downturn.

* David Aponovich writes for atNewYork sister site boston.internet.com.