Eagle Broadband hopes its acquisition of Connex Services, announced yesterday, will aid its burgeoning IPTV business, a company executive said.

Connex is largely an integrator and project manager, working with local subcontractors across the country to deploy information technology (IT) solutions including voice, data, video and security, particularly for corporate customers with locations in multiple cities. Eagle is acquiring Connex’s more than 50 customers, which generate a combined $600,000 in annual revenue. The acquisition represents a 35% boost in Eagle’s IT services revenue and customer base, Eagle said.

Many of Connex’s customers are in the service industry, including the hospitality sector, where Eagle currently sells IPTV set-top boxes.

“We want to move in the direction of IPTV,” said Brian Morrow, Eagle’s chief operating officer. “IPTV, to us, is heavily focused on multi-dwelling units like apartments. High-density housing. Having a strong services division with subcontractors across the country who can work with us in rolling out IP technologies anywhere we need to roll them out is a powerful strength.”

Along with the acquisition, Eagle has hired Connex’s chief executive officer for the past two years, Anthony Cordaro, to be vice president and general manager of its IT services group. Cordaro, 56, has signed a two-year employment contract with Eagle that gives him an annual base salary of $125,000 and potential quarterly and annual bonuses. Kane Brushwood, another Connex executive, will become director of Eagle’s IT services group.

Eagle’s IPTV push is one of the latest twists in the protean company’s life. It began by selling paging and other wireless gear in 1996. In 2001, it started offering broadband products and services through the acquisition of Clearworks.net. In 2002, another acquisition brought it into the security monitoring business. In 2003, the company exited the paging business and started offering bundled digital telecom services, satellite products and IT services, including project management. This year, Eagle exited the security monitoring business and adopted a focus on three areas: indoor satellite telephony products, IT services and IPTV.

In September, Eagle’s super-headend in Miami became operational, delivering nearly 250 channels of IPTV to the subscribers of its first IPTV customer, Anew Broadband. Eagle expects to start receiving its first IPTV revenue this month.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Eagle will give Connex 1,203,774 shares of unregistered common stock, 754,717 of which will be registered for resale by Connex. Trade restrictions on the unregistered stock will be lifted upon the business’ achievement of certain undisclosed performance metrics following the acquisition. On December 7, when the acquisition was made, Eagle’s stock closed at $0.53.

Eagle is currently in the process of submitting to the American Stock Exchange a plan to regain compliance with the exchange’s listing standards. At the end of November, Am Ex notified Eagle that the company did not comply with its requirements for shareholder equity and losses from continuing operations. If Am Ex accepts Eagle’s plan, due December 29, Eagle will have until the end of May to regain compliance with the listing standards. Morrow said he didn’t know how a potential delisting of Eagle’s stock would affect the terms of the Connex acquisition.