Waukesha-based Central Office Systems Corp. announced today it has acquired Milwaukee-based Attivo Technologies LLC. The transaction closed today for an undisclosed price.
Central Office Systems, established in 1973, was originally a supplier of office typewriters and copiers. It has since evolved into a printer sales, rental and service provider and the largest Konica Minolta dealer in Wisconsin. It is led by Christopher Rosecky and Art Flater, and has offices in Waukesha and Appleton.
Attivo Technologies, which has five employees, was established in 2011 and is led by Christian Kerhin. The company offers IT managed services, and is located at 909 W. National Ave. in Milwaukee. Kerhin will stay on at COS as vice president of information technology services.
The combined firm has between 40 and 50 employees. Attivo will close its Milwaukee office and move in to Central Office Systems’ Waukesha corporate office and distribution center.
“Central Office Systems has been a technology company, but focused on printers and scanning,” Flater said. “And we focus on the on-ramp and off-ramp of how companies get their data. But we weren’t really part of the internal highways of how data moves around and we weren’t really part of the IT infrastructure. We were the peripherals.”
Providing all of the IT services a company needs will also allow COS to implement broad cybersecurity measures, he said. Some of the most vulnerable areas of a computer network are often the printers.
With the addition of Attivo’s capabilities, COS plans to expand the company and grow employment in its IT business by another 10 to 15 percent over the next 12 months, Flater said.
