Video Channel M&A: AVI-SPL Buys Canadian A/V Firm

CRN's 2012 Solution Provider 500 list

Terms of the deal were not provided, but it establishes AVI-SPL offices in Calgary and Vancouver, adding to an AVI-SPL footprint that includes 32 U.S. offices and a presence in Canada, Mexico and Dubai, according to the company.

In an email to CRN, John Zettel, AVI-SPL CEO, said Engineered AV's principals and technical staff will remain with the company and customers will see no break in service.

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Engineered AV is Tampa, Fla.-based AVI-SPL's second acquisition this year, following the January pickup of Iformata Communications, a Dayton, Ohio-based solution provider and MSP.

Both acquisitions come as AVI-SPL mounts a deeper push around managed and professional services, which A/V industry observers concede is the major difference between endpoint and infrastructure resellers and full-fledged A/V integration businesses with fatter margins and recurring revenue.

In an interview at AVI-SPL's national sales meeting in Tampa in April, Zettel told CRN that about $40 million of the company's revenue is services. But AVI-SPL hopes to derive one-third of overall revenue from services within a few years thanks to the depth and breadth of its various services businesses -- from managed system support and audio/video bridging to professional services and design offerings.

"The greatest services opportunity falls on the back end," Zettel told CRN. "That's the part that doesn't end -- it continues. But you have to have them all, which we do, and be credible in all of them."

The current AVI-SPL formed in 2008, when Tampa-based Audio Visual Innovations (AVI) merged with Columbia, Md.-based Signal Perfection Ltd. (SPL). The combined company is majority-owned by Silver Lake Sumeru, the arm of investment giant Silver Lake focused on midmarket tech companies.

PUBLISHED JULY 12, 2012