A HIGH-TECH jobs bonanza could be triggered by the merger between a giant York software resale company and a Buckinghamshire firm specialising in web-based applications and services.

The £50 million turnover Internet Software Corporation based in Clifton Moor has just been bought by TrustMarque, of Gerrards Cross, for an undisclosed sum, but TrustMarque is known to have raised an extra £3.5 million from its existing investors to help fund the acquisition and to provide working capital for the enlarged group.

The deal - sealed with the help of York solicitors Denison Till - could result over the next 12 months in up to 30 jobs being added to the 90 already on the payroll at the firm's base in Amy Johnson Way.

The vendor was Paul Ridley, a former chartered accountant who started the Clifton Moor venture 12 years ago, building it up into the largest Microsoft re-seller in the UK as well as offering consultancy services. He becomes managing director of the re-named TrustMarque Solutions Ltd.

He and his wife, Karan, also own the prestigious Parsonage Country House Hotel at Escrick. Mrs Ridley, a former director of the Software Corporation, will now concentrate on running the hotel on which they have spent more than £1 million to improve conference, residential and dining facilities.

Rapidly-growing TrustMarque was started only three years ago but now employs 70 to develop its secure payment software which enables organisations to securely conduct digital commerce via the Internet.

This is not the first time that Mr Ridley has sold his business. In 1977 he sold it to InfoBank International Holidays, but he bought it back last year when it no longer fitted in with the quoted company's strategy.

Asked if jobs at Clifton Moor were now safe, Mr Ridley said: "If anything we will grow in number because TrustMarque is transferring the development of products and services to York which is a better source of computer professionals. Within 12 months I expect we will be employing between 20 and 30 more people, partly in sales and partly on the technology side.

"Our real growth will not be in big pound notes through software, but through internet success like e-commerce, consultancy services and trusted transaction products."