ABI Vanishes Into New PacTel Business Systems

Barely 2 months after acquiring Irvine-based ABI American Businessphones Inc., Pacific Telesis Co. said it is consolidating the subsidiary with three others to create a new firm with headquarters in Walnut Creek.

While ABI has ceased to exist, its 190 employees will remain in their jobs in Southern California as part of the new firm, PacTel Business Systems, which started operations Monday.

Only Frank Feitz, ABI’s chairman and president, will be affected by the consolidation. He has become president of the sales division of the new PacTel subsidiary and will move to Walnut Creek.

He said some “back office” employees, such as accountants and administrative employees at the four firms may lose their jobs or be transferred elsewhere in the PacTel system. It has not been determined yet whether there will be layoffs, Feitz said.

The four subsidiaries employ 750 people, 428 of them in Southern California, including 270 in Orange County.

The new operation, he said, is expected to grow as PacTel Business Systems tries to capture about a third of the $1-billion market for business communications products in California, Nevada, Oregon and Arizona. Combined annual revenues of the four separate operations amounted to more than $70 million last year, he said.

PacTel Business Systems was formed by consolidating ABI with Comprehensive Communications Inc., a City of Commerce firm that PacTel purchased in June; PacTel Premisys, a maintenance firm PacTel bought a few years ago, and the telecommunications division of PacTel InfoSystems. The latter two units are based in Walnut Creek.

The new subsidiary is wholly owned by PacTel Communications Cos., a Pacific Telesis company.

“The consolidation brings all of us together and focuses our efforts on small to medium-size businesses,” he said. “Now we’ll have a common set of goals. And for our customers, that means they can deal with one firm, PacTel Business Systems, no matter where they are.”

While Feitz heads sales operations, David D. Trimmer, who was president and chief executive of Premisys, will oversee installations and service as president of the services division of PacTel Business Systems.