Sep. 29--In a deal that helped fuel a stock market rally Monday, Xerox is offering cash and stock worth $6.4 billion for Affiliated Computer Services Inc., which employs 2,100 people in Utah.

With the move, Xerox is joining the expensive race among technology companies to broaden their offerings, and a one-time Utah entrepreneur, whose start-up was purchased by ACS 13 years ago, is about to become a central figure in a movement that is transforming the technology sector.

Lynn Blodgett, president and CEO of Dallas-based ACS, will continue in that role, reporting to Xerox CEO Ursula Burns. Blodgett maintains a Salt Lake Valley home and regularly commutes to his Dallas headquarters.

ACS's 2,100 Utah employees are in three Salt Lake Valley locations -- Salt Lake City, Draper and Sandy. The global firm employs 74,000 workers in 500 centers in more than 100 countries, according to spokesman Kevin Lightfoot.

Xerox is a major provider of imaging equipment, Blodgett said Monday. That technology blends perfectly with ACS's services, he said, in which it collects customer data for clients such as governments and telecom call centers, processes it, analyzes it, then stores it.

Its government work includes managing Medicaid systems for 15 states. "When someone gets a [medical] procedure done or applies for Medicaid, we handle that. Then we process the payments from Medicaid to the provider," Lightfoot said.

In a conference call with analysts

Monday, Xerox Chief Financial Officer Larry Zimmerman said only about 20 percent of ACS and Xerox customers overlap, meaning the companies will have an opportunity to sell those clients more products. In particular, Xerox hopes to expand the overseas reach of ACS, which does more than 90 percent of its business with U.S.-based companies.

The deal comes just five months after ACS and Novell Inc.'s Provo office formed a strategic alliance in which ACS took over computer operations. Nearly 100 Novell employees went to work for ACS.

Blodgett doesn't expect that the acquisition to have any dramatic effect on ACS employees, including those in Utah.

Beehive State employees "should expect to see improvement in technology over the long haul, and greater opportunities for growing business," he said. "Xerox is a global brand, and that will make for more-effective marketing globally."

The move takes Xerox deeper into the back-office operations of its business customers with the kind of acquisition that is popping up more and more as technology companies add a greater variety of equipment and services under a single tent.

Last week Dell Inc.