Sensis has sold its small-business technology operation, Invizage, to startup IT services company PK Business Advantage (PKBA) for an undisclosed but presumably large sum. This almost doubles PKBA’s headcount and significantly expands its Australian footprint to cover each Australian State.
The acquisition of Invizage was funded by shareholders, and was for a cash
consideration, PKBA founder Peter Kazacos confirmed yesterday. It lifts the
company’s headcount from 80 to 150, and, according to Kazacos, will add 7000
customers to the 1000 PKBA already had on its books. It is the company’s
fourth acquisition in six months.

For Kazacos, who also founded Kaz, (later purchased by Telstra for a
handsome sum), it is something of an ironic turnaround to now find himself
purchasing a little piece of Telstra (the telco owns Sensis), but he has
been eyeing Invizage for some time.

“One of the benefits of being inside, (is) I knew it existed,” Kazacos
confides, “I can’t give you a time as to when we actually did it, but it’s
been in the plan.”

The acquisition gives PKBA a presence in WA, Brisbane, Melbourne, and
Sydney’s North Ryde, and adds to its existing facility in Adelaide. An
earlier PKBA acquisition, Comstra, is located in Tasmania.

“Particularly, I was keen to get coverage across all of Australia,” Kazacos
notes. With the acquisition, PKBA inherits Invizage’s billing systems,
customer base, and a well-known brand in PKBA’s target SMB market. “We’re
planning on using the Invizage brand as our brand for managed services,”
said Kazacos yesterday. Invizage employees will be retained, he added: “The
great thing is there’s no overlap.”

PKBA, which has been trading officially since last month, has acquired
regional-based IT companies in SA, North Queensland and Tasmania.

Invizage was established in Melbourne in 1995 and purchased by Sensis two
years ago. Chris Smith, general manager Sensis Interactive, said the sale to
PKBA meant the business would keep its profile in the IT-services market for
small business.

Earlier this week, Sensis announced revenue growth of 8 percent in the
2006-07 financial year to $1.97 billion. Invizage’s performance was not
reported, Sensis instead highlighting its $1.5 billion directories business,
voice portfolio and “emerging businesses”. Sensis owns the Yellow and White
Pages, Trading Post, CitySearch and Whereis brands. – Dorothy Kennedy