The deal closed Jan. 1 for an undisclosed sum. "We'd been talking about a merger with Kortek for two-and-a-half years and the timing was finally right this year," said Ron Cook, chairman of Connecting Point, which is also based in Las Vegas.

While Connecting Point doesn't plan to expand its geographic reach beyond its current markets in Nevada, California, New Mexico and Arizona, the company will continue to seek out new clients and place greater emphasis on maintaining its current customer base.

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Cook said the merger made good business sense, since both VARs were transitioning to a managed-services model using Level Platforms technology, and each brought strengths the other was lacking. "Add Kortek's SonicWall expertise with Connecting Point's Microsoft Gold certification and we gain much greater visibility with the clients we partner with," said Cook.

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The merger strengthens Connecting Point's ability to deliver a larger set of technology services from more vendors, Cook said, and reassures clients that Connecting Point has the strong backing of industry-standard technology vendors such as Microsoft and SonicWall.

The merger also helped lower overheads and support costs for both VARs, Cook said. Connecting Point and Kortek don't have to operate separate help desks and Kortek's staff will operate out of Connecting Point's headquarters, he said.

Lyle Epstein, founder of Kortek, will serve as Connecting Point president and CTO, said Connecting Point CEO Lester Keizer. "We saw that we had to have a high-level CTO to meet with our clients to plot their yearly technology direction," Keizer said. Epstein's appointment to the Microsoft Technology Advisory council and his strong Microsoft and Intel background make him ideal for the position, Keizer said, as well as fulfilling a need with Connecting Point's customer base.