EMS Technologies Inc., a Norcross, Ga. wireless broadband communications firm, was counseled by King & Spalding partner Mark Thompson in London on a $46 million acquisition of a British company.

In the all-cash deal agreement, EMS will acquire Satamatics Global Ltd. of Tewkesbury, United Kingdom. The companies expect to close the deal early next year, pending approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and other conditions.

Thompson was lead partner for King & Spalding. Other Atlanta-based attorneys involved included partners Eleanor Banister, Ray Baltz, Suzanne Feese and Holmes Hawkins. Steptoe & Johnson partner Alfred Mamlet in Washington advised Satamatics.

Satamatics makes satellite data communications terminals for mobile asset tracking and monitoring. EMS is involved in several business segments, such as providing voice, e-mail, video conferencing and Internet capabilities on aircraft. EMS also makes LXE-brand handheld and vehicle-mounted computers used in logistics management; and it makes microwave-based communications equipment for defense contractors.

Kilpatrick Stockton gave legal advice to AT&T Inc. on its successful bid for a $346 million technology-outsourcing contract with the state of Georgia.

Partner Jim Steinberg, chair of the firm’s technology practice group, led the team. Counsel Jim Paine and partner Dorinda Peacock in Raleigh, N.C., were also involved.

Gov. Sonny Perdue awarded a five-year contract to AT&T to provide wide area network, local area network and voice services. The contract comes with two, one-year options to renew, according to Perdue’s office.

A 2007 audit of Georgia’s information-technology operations revealed “aging infrastructure, inability to meet minimum industry standards, lack of processes and skills, little coordination of spending and deficiencies in disaster recovery,” according to Perdue’s office.

AT&T will work with the Georgia Technology Authority, a state agency. AT&T will offer jobs to 33 Georgia Technology Authority employees. The authority’s remaining 92 employees will be laid off, according to the Associated Press.

Combined with a separate, $873 million contract with IBM, the state expects to save about $180 million by outsourcing its information technology.

A court-reporting and legal-technology company founded in Atlanta just got a lot bigger—both in the size of its workforce and in the size of its capital accounts.

In a series of transactions, Accel-KKR acquired an equity stake in Alexander Gallo Holdings LLC of Atlanta. Subsequently, Gallo Holdings acquired Hobart West Group Inc. of Florham Park, N.J. Terms were not disclosed for either of the deals.

The Accel-KKR investment allowed Gallo Holdings to acquire Hobart West, company founder Alex Gallo said. Hobart West had operations in more than 20 states, boosting Gallo Holdings’ total number of offices to more than 60. Gallo will remain president and chief executive of the combined company.

Gallo Holdings’ offerings include court reporting, legal video, trial presentation and staffing professionals. It operates under several trade names, including Brown & Gallo and Jack Daniel Court Reporting.

Accel-KKR is a joint venture that focuses on technology companies and involves two of the most influential investment firms. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. of New York, also known as KKR, is one of the world’s biggest private equity funds with more than $50 billion under management. Accel Partners of Palo Alto, Calif., is a venture capital fund that has invested in Facebook, Real Networks and UUNet.

Gallo Holdings becomes Accel-KKR’s 12th company in its portfolio, including current and past investments. Accel-KKR’s other investments have included CRS Retail Systems and iTradeNetwork.

Powell Goldstein partner Stuart Johnson and associate Hannah Crockett were Gallo Holdings’ local counsel on the transactions, Gallo said. Johnson declined to comment on the deal.

The New York law firm Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch was legal adviser to Gallo Holdings on the merger agreement, Gallo said. Kirkland & Ellis advised Gallo Holdings on issues related to the financing of the deal. Andrews Kurth advised Accel-KKR. Hunton & Williams lawyers in Richmond, Va., were counsel to Hobart West.

Midsize law firms can mix it up with public companies, too. A team from the 43-lawyer Atlanta firm Taylor Busch Slipakoff & Duma was lead corporate counsel to Numerex Corp. on a recent deal.

Numerex purchased Ublip Inc. for $300,000 in cash and 400,000 shares of Numerex stock. Taylor Busch partner Bob Goldberg [photo, right] is the relationship partner to Numerex. Partners Al Hill and Gail Kinney advised Numerex on the merger agreement. Taylor Busch has handled several corporate matters for Numerex, in addition to the Ublip deal, Goldberg said.

Both Atlanta-based Numerex and Addison, Tex.-based Ublip are involved in the business of providing access and related services to “machine-to-machine” networks. An example of an “M2M” network, Goldberg said, is a home security device that’s connected through a computer network to a central alarm system.

“It’s any type of computer network that doesn’t involve voice services,” Goldberg said.

Numerex leases capacity on such networks from other carriers and compiles that bandwidth into an underlying network, Goldberg said. Numerex provides services and equipment to clients who use its network. Other applications, in addition to home security, include mobile devices that monitor inventories in warehouses; or devices that track vehicles carried on trucks or trains. Numerex’s customers include Siemens Water Technologies and the State of Florida.

Ublip specializes in GPS-tracking machine-to-machine networks, Goldberg said.

Atlanta software maker Eclipsys Corp. picked a California law firm to give it advice on a pending acquisition.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Michelle Hodges in Irvine, Calif. advised Eclipsys on its agreement to purchase MediNotes Corp. for $45 million in cash and stock. Eclipsys’ general counsel is Brian W. Copple, a former Gibson Dunn partner.

Hodges has worked with Eclipsys on other M&A matters, having been lead counsel to the company on its February acquisition of Enterprise Performance Systems Inc.

Eclipsys makes software to allow healthcare companies to manage patient information, billing and medical records. MediNotes, of West Des Moines, Iowa, makes software for physician practice group management.

Morris, Manning & Martin partner Ed Hirsch advised Chain Reaction Ecommerce Inc. on a $5 million venture capital investment, according to the law firm.  MMM associates Lou Barbieri and Scott Allen also worked on the deal. Total Technology Ventures LLC invested $2.5 million in the Atlanta company. Other unnamed investors put in the additional $2.5 million. Chain Reaction’s open-source software product, called CRE Loaded, allows companies to create and manage Web sites for selling products.

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough partner Michael Hollingsworth and associate Brian Galison advised Premiere Global Services Inc. on its $20 million acquisition of Soundpath Conferencing Services LLC.

Soundpath, of Washington, provides audio conferencing and Internet conferencing services to the legal industry. Atlanta-based Premiere sells teleconferencing and web conferencing software and services, as well as software used to automate business process activities.

Hollingsworth and Galison worked with Premiere Global General Counsel Scott Askins Leonard. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom advised Soundpath.

King & Spalding partner Jack Capers advised Concurrent Computer Corp. on the negotiation of a 4-year employment contract with its chief financial officer, Emory Berry.

Berry had been working as Concurrent’s CFO on a contract basis through TechCFO LLC. TechCFO, an Atlanta company, provides “executive level financial management, project management and staffing” to technology companies, according to its Web site. Concurrent, of Duluth, sells Linux-based computing technologies to private companies and government agencies.

Berry will be paid a base salary this year of $295,000, according to a regulatory filing. Berry will also be eligible for a bonus and was awarded restricted stock and stock options.

Concurrent’s general counsel is Kirk L. Somers.

King & Spalding partner Bill Roche was lead corporate counsel to AirDefense Inc. on the company’s buyout by Motorola Inc.

AirDefense, of Alpharetta, makes software that allows corporations and government agencies to protect their computer networks against wireless security threats. AirDefense and Motorola had already been partners on strategic ventures. Terms of Motorola’s acquisition of privately held AirDefense weren’t disclosed.

The King & Spalding legal team was comprised of Atlanta partners Don Hensel (tax), Don Kohla (employee benefits), Scott Petty (intellectual property) and Bob Bryant (technology transactions), and associates Alison Van Lear and Kendall Lioon. Miriti Murungi, an associate in Washington, worked on antitrust matters. McDermott Will & Emery advised Motorola.

Troughs in the economy are often often the best time for angels to make investments, said DLA Piper partner Jeff Leavitt. That’s apparently the thinking used by angels who have invested in Purewire Inc.

Leavitt represented software maker Purewire this month in negotiating the terms of a $2 million investment from a group of angel investors. The angel group was led by Imlay Investments of Atlanta.

Angel investors, also known as seed investors, typically make investments of $2 million or less. Angels put their own personal money into companies; in comparison, venture capital firms invest money raised from outside sources.

In exchange for the investment, angels typically get a seat on the company’s board and preferred company stock along with voting rights. Lately, however, Leavitt said the angel investors with whom he’s negotiated have received convertible debt in the company, instead of preferred stock. That’s what happened in the Purewire transaction – the investors received a convertible note instead of stock.

“The benefit with convertible debt is that you don’t have to price the deal,” Leavitt said. “Usually for an angel, the company is too new for the angel to put a valuation on the company.”

With a convertible note, you can defer the valuation negotiation” until a later round of financing when the company raises equity, Leavitt said. Convertible debt also provides a benefit to the target company, because they don’t have to put a value on their assets too soon, he said.

Leavitt said he’s closed several angel-investment deals lately because of the downturn in the economy, rather than in spite of it. That’s because angel investors know they could reap a larger return when the market rebounds.

“A lot of the best returns on angel investments historically have been made in downturns,” Leavitt said.

Purewire makes software used to provide Internet security for businesses. Along with its $2 million investment, Atlanta-based Purewire said that it also named former Internet Security Systems CEO Thomas Noonan to its board.