A Canadian software giant has paid an undisclosed sum for G.1440 LLC, a Baltimore-based consulting, software and marketing firm that has been part of the area's technology industry since the late 1990s.

A subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc., a publicly traded company in Toronto, bought the assets of G.1440 in an all-cash deal from its majority stakeholder, Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns and operates nearly 60 television stations across the United States. Officials for both companies expected G.1440's strategy and management team to stay in place, without job cuts in Baltimore.

"I think this is going to be good for Baltimore," said Larry Fiorino, G.1440's founder, president and CEO. "We have a large software company that now has an interest in Baltimore."

Fiorino started G.1440 in 1998 out of his Reisterstown home and sold a majority stake to a subsidiary of Sinclair a year later. The company, which has 75 employees, had offices in Columbia, downtown Baltimore and Hampden before moving to its current office in the Clipper Mill complex.

The software product that attracted the attention of Canada's Constellation involves an online customer-relation management tool called Builder1440. That software, which G.1440 started building in 2000, is now a significant part of the business, according to Fiorino. Partnering with Constellation would give G.1440's team potential access to thousands of new customers in the United States and Canada, he said.

Fiorino declined to release G.1440's profit and sales figures. But he said over the past five years, the company has grown about 16 percent a year. Sinclair officials could not be reached for comment.

Dexter Salna, president of the subsidiary Constellation Homebuilder Systems, said his company likes to buy and hold strong companies. In the past 15 years, he said, Constellation has bought more than 100 companies, but sold only three.

"I think we have a good management team [at G.1440] and I'm directing them to see how we can grow," Salna said. "We're more of a buy and hold investor."