ICOA Swallows AuthDirect

Hotspot network provider ICOA Corp. has snapped up wireless LAN billing and management startup AuthDirect Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

ICOA claims that the acquisition adds the "final element" of a back-end OSS managed services suite to its capabilities in installing and managing wireless LAN networks.

AuthDirect -- you may remember -- came to the fore when it emerged that now-defunct hotspot contender Cometa was using the firm's wholesale billing and management software instead of a new system from backers AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) and IBM Global Services (see Cometa Leans on Startup).

It's not clear whether Cometa ever replaced the "temporary" billing system from AuthDirect before it flamed out (see Cometa Closes).

But AuthDirect's association with the now-dimmed star clearly didn't do it any harm.

"AuthDirect was approached by numerous suitors within the rapidly growing broadband wireless industry who recognized the superior value of our platform," AuthDirect co-founder and CEO Kevin Quaintance claimed in a statement about the deal today.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung