Kingswood Capital Completes Deal for WAVE Electronics, Will Merge With AVAD
Leading home technology and security distributors WAVE and AVAD will have a combined 32 branch locations in the United States and Canada.
When combined, WAVE Electronics and AVAD will have 32 branch locations across North America.
LOS ANGELES — Private equity firm Kingswood Capital Management announced today that it has acquired Houston-based home technology distributor WAVE Electronics for undisclosed terms.
Kingswood said it will merge WAVE with its portfolio company, AVAD. In bringing together WAVE and AVAD, Kingswood will create the single largest value-added distributor of high-end audio, video, security and home automation solutions in the consumer electronics industry, the announcement states.
The new combined company, with 32 branch locations, will be focused on the residential and commercial custom installation markets in North America. The combination of WAVE and AVAD delivers a far-reaching benchmark solution to elevate same-day product needs, national one-day shipping and services for dealers and vendors across the United States and Canada, the company states.
At closing, Mark Fukuda, former COO for WAVE, will take over as the CEO for the combined enterprise. Key members of the new executive management team will include Bill Steckel as CFO, Ainslie Fukuda as vice president of purchasing, Bryan Stewart as vice president of sales and Jon Zabel as vice president of vendor management.
The new company will be headquartered in Houston, with an initial objective to combine the best residential A/V, pro A/V, and security brands across all of its North American locations. The new company plans to integrate its dealer services, including tech support, programming services, marketing services, and dealer programs.
“Both AVAD and WAVE have spent years perfecting the just-in-time distribution model and this rapidly accelerates our ability to bring our award-winning service and product solutions to dealers throughout the United States and Canada,” Fukuda says. “AVAD has built a strong presence in the pro A/V channel, WAVE has done the same in the residential security space, combining that with our collective strength in the residential A/V markets and our new larger North American footprint is a winning combination.”
Tom Jacoby, who had been serving as AVAD’s CEO and who will become chairman of the combined company, adds: “Fred Farrar and I have spent the last two years at AVAD positioning the company for exactly this kind of market expansion opportunity. We are very grateful to the AVAD team, which has worked diligently over the past couple years to position the company for profitable growth following the carve-out from Ingram Micro in 2016. The WAVE leadership team has built great operating systems and developed transformational segment opportunities that make it natural for Mark Fukuda to assume leadership of the combined business.”
Alex Wolf, managing partner of Kingswood, says the merger “provides for a unique combination of scale and diversification in the North American custom-installer channel.”
Dentons US LLP and Goodwin Proctor LLP served as legal advisors to Kingswood. Stephens Inc. acted as the exclusive financial advisor to WAVE.
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