Verizon Lightens Up For New IT Focus

Verizon Information Technologies (VITI) will sell a segment of its
health care processing business to Infocrossing for $43.5 million in cash.

The deal will allow the Verizon Communications
subsidiary to focus on data center hosting, managed IT
services and combined telecom and IT offerings. It should close within 30 days.

“We sense some other opportunities that could be more lucrative,” Ells
Edwards, a Verizon spokesman, told internetnews.com.

VITI will also seek to expand the number of industries it targets.
Currently, VITI does business with medium-to-large health care, consumer
financing, telecom, IT and overnight delivery firms with annual revenues of
$5 million to $23 billion.

Citing competitive reasons, Edwards declined to identify the specific
sectors that are being eyed.

The VITI segment that Infocrossing bought handles claims for Medicare,
Medicaid and managed care. Its 165 employees, based in Jefferson City, Mo.,
Phoenix, Ariz., and Tampa, Fla., will move to Infocrossing. That will leave
VITI with 60 employees.

“That’s not going to remain static,” Edwards said. “That unit plans to grow
itself beyond the 60 number.”

Tampa-based VITI will maintain close ties with Verizon’s Enterprise
Solutions, which accounts for some of its contract flow. Verizon does not
break out annual revenue for VITI.

Infocrossing, an IT outsourcer and business processing
specialist, said the pickup will further the firm’s overall
growth strategy, as well as its reach in the health care market.

In August, the Leonia, N.J., company secured a $25 million loan to fund
acquisitions. The VITI deal is Infocrossing’s third recent acquisition.
Earlier it purchased Amquest and Systems Management Specialists.