SUPERIOR - Work Options Group Inc., a child and elderly backup-care service based in Superior, has been acquired by Watertown, Mass.-based Bright Horizons Family Solutions LLC.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Both privately held companies provide businesses the ability to offer backup-care services for their employees' children and elderly relatives if they are ill. It helps employees continue to work with the confidence that their loved ones are being cared for.

"By welcoming them into the Bright Horizons family, we have a tremendous opportunity to join together two successful programs and create an expanded network of the highest quality providers to give our employer clients and their working families unsurpassed access to back-up child and elder care wherever they may live or work," Bright Horizons Chief Executive Officer David Lissy said in a press release.

Cindy Carrillo of Boulder founded Work Options Group in 1986 to provide work and family related consulting services to employers of all sizes. In 1994, the company began focusing solely on offering back-up care solutions to corporate clients nationwide.

Work Options Group has grown to serve 150 clients and their 600,000 employees through a network of 5,000 providers. Well-known clients include Microsoft, Princeton University, Merrill Lynch, Accenture and Verizon Wireless.

Work Options Group employs 79 people in Colorado, 84 nationwide. It reported $18 million in revenues in 2008. The company will continue to operate out of its office at 1100 S. McCaslin Blvd, Suite 200, said Public Relations Manager Heather Hope.

The combination of the Bright Horizons and Work Options Group backup- care network programs will create one comprehensive network of more than 6,500 providers, serving hundreds of clients and more than 1.8 million families in need of back-up care for their children, elder relatives or adult dependents in North America and Europe.

Bright Horizons has 17 child-care center locations in Colorado, including one in Broomfield, one in Louisville, and two in Longmont.