Mainline Information Systems Acquires RTP Technology, Gives Solution Provider Major New York Metro Market

Solution provider Mainline Information Systems Wednesday unveiled one of its largest acquisitions to date with the purchase of RTP Technology.

The acquisition gives Mainline a major presence in the New York metropolitan area, thereby filling a big gap in its coast-to-coast presence, said John McCarthy, president of the Tallahassee, Fla.-based company.

"RTP fills a geographic gap for us," McCarthy told CRN. "All the solution providers I have worked with before had a strong reach in New York. Not Mainline. RTP gives us that reach."

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Mainline has been around for about 30 years, and has a strong presence throughout the U.S., with major presences on the West Coast, in Texas and in Boston, McCarthy said.

"New York is an animal in itself," he said. "There's plenty of need in New York. We feel the best way to break into New York is a big step, not a series of baby steps."

McCarthy declined to discuss the financial aspects of the acquisition. However, he did say that RTP is "incredibly profitable," and had about $250 million in revenue in 2018.

With the acquisition, Mainline expects its combined revenue going forward to be close to $1 billion, and expects its final headcount to grow from about 450 people before the acquisition to about 550 people after.

Going forward, RTP will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Mainline, and it will go by the name Mainline RTP, McCarthy said. Ron Robbins, founder and owner of RTP, will continue on as president of Mainline RTP and report to McCarthy.

The acquisition brings together two companies with remarkably similar characteristics, McCarthy said.

"Both of us are private companies," he said. "Both have one owner. Neither has an outside investor. And Mainline has been around for 30 years while RTP has been around for 25 years."

RTP Technology is only the third acquisition Mainline Information Systems has made in the 10 or so years that McCarthy has been with the company. Mainline about six years acquired a small company, Software by Design, for its analytics capabilities. It also did what McCarthy called a "mass hire" by purchasing the "bones" of an unnamed company to get is 20 people.

RTP is based in Paramus, N.J., in the north of the state close to New York City, McCarthy said. Mainline plans to keep that office open, but will also open a larger office in the New York metropolitan area that combines personnel from both RTP and Mainline, he said.