"This is a union of two industry leaders," states Steve Riebel, president and CEO of privately-held ATX, based in San Antonio. "It makes good business sense to combine each company's unique expertise and market strengths to create a new vision, a new leader, and a new force for telematics in the next century. Telematics will provide the ability to access data and communicate anytime, anywhere. Telematics will enhance communications in vehicles, on cell phones, through pagers — the opportunities are enormous."

"Separately, each company brings a wealth of unique experience in applying telematics to a variety of different platforms and customers with a variety of different needs," explains Steve Millstein, president, Protection One Mobile Services Group. "Together, we can pool our technological resources and expertise to create the critical mass needed to bring dramatic advancements and more services to accelerate the growth of this industry."

The transaction entails the acquisition of Protection One Mobile Services by ATX for approximately $28 million from Protection One, Inc.

The combined companies will maintain both San Antonio and Dallas-area operations. Riebel will continue as chairman and CEO of ATX Technologies, with Millstein serving as president and COO. Millstein will join ATX's board of directors.

Riebel emphasizes that the combined work force of both companies, approximately 200 employees, will be retained to meet the demands of rapid business growth.

Link for more info: www.protectionone-mobile.com