You'd think if a local information technology company had just raised $15 million it would be all over the local media.
That would probably be the case unless the firm in question had just moved here from Texas and if the money was actually raised by a Florida-based parent company. Confused? So was I.Untangling it all
I-Link Worldwide is a Draper-based firm that is headquartered just upstairs from our offices near the Point of the Mountain. I-Link created a little stir a few months back when word got out that it had hired former Novell executive vice president John W. Edwards as its new CEO. However, the hiring came with one major condition from Edwards: He would only accept the position if the firm was relocated from Texas to Utah, which its board agreed to do.
Last February, I-Link Ltd., a local Internet services provider in the Austin, Texas, area and precursor to I-Link Worldwide, was acquired by Medcross, Inc., a firm based in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Medcross owns two medical diagnostic and therapeutic facilities in Florida and leases such equipment to several other medical facilities throughout the southeast. It also manages some of these other facilities for their respective owners.
On the surface, the Medcross acquisition of I-Link doesn't appear to make a lot of sense since the two firms are in such different fields.
But if you consider the opportunity for a medical diagnostic and therapeutic services provider to offer long-distance, real-time health-care consultations and diagnoses, then you've potentially got a real winner on your hands.
Since the Medcross acquisition of I-Link, a few changes have taken place for the high-tech firm.
As stated above, the firm has made the trek from Austin to Draper, Edwards is the new CEO and other industry heavyweights have been installed in other management positions.
And Medcross raised $15.1 million in a private placement, with proceeds from the offering slated for the I-Link subsidiary.
Why all this interest in I-Link? No longer a "ho-hum" ISP, I-Link has hit upon a plan to create a private long-distance network with 50 POPs (points-of-presence or in other words, local access points) across North America by the end of the year.
With these 50 POPs, I-Link plans a late fall roll-out of its Fax-Less service.
Through Fax-Less, I-Link says it will be able to lower an organization's fax charges by up to 80 percent, all without having to change how it currently sends and receives faxes.
Additionally, I-Link has plans for other low-cost, easy-to-use intelligent communications products and services.
If it's successful, the firm projects it will generate more than $100 million in revenues in its first full year following the Fax-Less roll-out.
Now that would be a big deal.