Applied Computer Technologies is moving into the printing and imaging business with the acquisition of the assets of Southside Office Depot.

ACT has signed a deal in principal to acquire the assets of Southside Office Depot (SSOD) after approaching principal owners Calvin White, Harrichand Sukdeo and Neville Tyrrell.

ACT did not disclose the price of last week?s acquisition which should be completed pending a few regulatory formalities.

ACT general manager Dave Bart said that with the deal his company now becomes the vendor for Kyocera Corporation which, while perhaps is not as well-known as Xerox or Cannon, competes in the same arena with multi-function printer lines that offer photocopying, scanning, printing and faxing and replace traditional photocopying.

Mr. Bart said: ?Kyocera is a traditional photocopier company, but the world of photocopiers has changed.

?They are all network devices now so all these things sit on your network and that is why it makes more sense for us is because we are a network infrastructure company.?

ACT, which is owned by North Rock Ventures and the same parent company of North Rock Communications, The Complete Office Switch Works Cabling, had been looking at different ways to expand revenue growth and product lines before the acquisition. ?We have been looking at getting into this line of business for awhile,? Mr. Bart said, adding that they had the choice of starting up on their own or taking over another company?s assets.

After doing some research and approaching the Southside owners however, they found a good fit.

?We are an HP partner which certainly has a presence in this area and so we will also be promoting the HP multifunction line as well,? Mr. Bart said.

As part of the deal his company now takes over Southside?s ?attractive customer base?.

?We are taking over all aspects of the maintenance of this thing so people can start calling ACT and we will definitely support existing Kyocera customers out there,? he said. ACT?s new printing and imaging division will be an extension of what ACT currently does and will be run as a separate division from ACT?s traditional lines of business ? its network infrastructure group.

Mr. Bart said however that there is definite potential to do cross selling between the new Kyocera clients that they gain and through clients who are part of ACT?s traditional lines of business.

His company is also bringing over SSOD?s primary sales person Joe Logan.

?Hopefully between the existing client base that ACT has today and the client base that we?re picking up we?ll be able to start cross selling into those different lines,? he said.