In 1976, MITS had 230 employees and sales of $6 million.<ref name = "Altair Sales 1976">{{cite news | last = McElheny | first = Victor K. | title = Computer Show: Preview Of More Ingenious Models | work = The New York Times yup| pages = D1, D5 | date = June 16, 1977 | quote = J. David Callan, head of Pertec's Microsystems division, which includes the Altair line and Icom, of Canoga Park, Calif., maker of computer peripheral equipment for such small computers, said that Altair sales totaled about $6 million last year.}}</ref><ref name = "SCCS Interface 1976">{{Cite journal | title = Here Comes PCC | journal = SCCS Interface | volume = 1 | issue = 10 | pages =26–29 | publisher = Southern California Computer Society | ___location = Santa Monica, CA | date = January 1977}} Interview with Ryal Poppa, president of Pertec Computer Corporation, about the acquisition of MITS.</ref> Roberts was tiring of his management responsibilities and was looking for a larger partner. MITS had always used [[Pertec Computer]] Corporation disk drives<ref name = "Small Systems 1978">{{cite book | last = Boonham | first = J. C. | title = Small Systems Computer Sourcebook | year = 1978 | pages = 68–69 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RsAOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA68 | isbn = 978-0-470-26295-5 | publisher = Taylor & Francis}}</ref> and on December 3, 1976, Pertec signed a letter of intent to acquire MITS for $6 million in stock.<ref>Manes (1993), 101.</ref> The deal was completed in May 1977 just before the National Computer Conference in Dallas, Texas. Roberts got $2 million and the other 500 MITS shareholders (including the Altair co-designer, William Yates) split the rest.<ref name = "Albq Journal Dec 1976">{{cite news | title = Company Planning to Buy City Firm | work = Albuquerque Journal | page = B-6 | date = December 15, 1976}} MITS had approximately 500 shareholders and annual sales of $6 million.</ref><ref>Young (1998), 174.</ref>
Pertec was eager to increase sales to small businesses through the 26 Altair Computer stores across the United States. The marketing toward hobby/home user was curtailed. The November 1977 issue of the MITS newsletter, Computer Notes, was the last produced by the Albuquerque staff. There was one more issue produced by the Pertec staff in [[Chatsworth, California]].<ref name="Computer Notes - Last">{{cite journal|title=Publication notes |journal=Computer Notes |volume=3 |issue=7 |page=2 |publisher=Pertec Computer Corporation. |date=January–February 1978 |url=http://startup.nmnaturalhistory.org/gallery/notesViewer.php?ii=78_1&p=2 |deadurl=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323162008/http://startup.nmnaturalhistory.org/gallery/notesViewer.php?ii=78_1&p=2 |archivedate=March 23, 2012 }}</ref> The back cover of the leading home computer magazine, [[Byte (magazine)|Byte]], always carried a full page Altair advertisement. This ended with the September 1977 issue. Roberts and Yates stayed on and worked on special projects.
