Platinum to Acquire IT Solutions

Continuing its acquisition spree, Los Angeles private investment firm Platinum Equity said Thursday that it would acquire General Electric Co.’s IT Solutions unit for undisclosed terms. The purchase, expected to be completed by year-end pending regulatory approval, would be Platinum’s seventh in 2004.

Platinum Equity, which has a portfolio of 22 operating companies, plans to integrate Erlanger, Ky.-based IT Solutions with Dallas-based CompuCom Systems, which it bought in October, to form a computer network consulting and services firm with more than 5,000 workers in North America and annual revenue of $1.7 billion. IT Solutions employs 1,700 and CompuCom has a staff of 3,450.