UCG makes biggest buy in company's history, purchases tax-preparation software company.

UCG, one of the country's largest privately held providers of specialized business information, recently acquired ATX Forms Inc., a leading tax software provider based in Caribou, Maine, and Ft. Pierce, Florida. UCG partner Todd Foreman calls it the "largest acquisition in the history of UCG, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next month."

Rockville, Maryland-based UCG will merge the 10-year-old ATX with its existing tax-research information division, Kleinrock Publishing, which it acquired in 1997.

The combination of Kleinrock and ATX gives rise to one of America's largest tax information and software companies, Foreman notes. Under the brand names MAX and Saber, ATX provides tax preparation software to more than 35,000 accounting firms and other tax preparers in the U.S. Under the TaxExpert brand, Kleinrock publishes electronic tax-research libraries, print newsletters, and reference manuals for 25,000 accounting and law firms "who need quick answers to their tax-compliance questions."

"The accounting profession is crying out for a single software tool that allows them to quickly handle the complex needs of individual and corporate taxpayers," says Glynn Willett, CEO of UCG's tax division and co-founder of ATX.

"We can deliver a product that marries editorial content and software so that CPAs can get answers instantly to virtually any tax question right as they're filling out a client's tax return. The cost to the practitioner will be thousands of dollars less than what competitors charge," Willett says.

ATX has been named to Inc. Magazine's Inc. 500 List for the fastest growing private companies for each of the past four years and expects to be named to the list again this year.

"We've made more than 30 acquisitions over the past 25 years," says Todd Foreman, who is in charge of acquisitions for the company. "The biggest asset we get is people, so we're excited to have Glynn and his team joining forces with us."

The investment banking firm of Eugene Simonoff & Associates Inc. represented ATX in the transactions.

UCG's tax division is one of ten that serve as many vertical markets--including health care, energy, technology, telecom, and banking. UCG publishes hundreds of business-to-business newsletters, directories, magazines, online services, conferences, seminars, and trade shows.

The company is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, and has sizable offices in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. ATX's Caribou and Ft. Pierce offices will remain in place.

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