"I never dreamed about success, I worked for it."
-Estee Lauder
June 08,2016
Carousel Industries to acquire Atrion, Inc.
Financial Information
- Not Disclosed
Transaction Facts
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Carousel Industries announced today that it will acquire IT solution provider Atrion Inc., creating a combined company that will deliver $525M of sales each year and employ over 1,300 employees in over 30 locations nationwide.
- Founded in 1987, Atrion provides communication, collaboration and data center solutions ranging from managed services to product support. Based in Rhode Island, about half of its $140M of revenue is derived from its Cisco practice.
- This acquisition marks Carousel’s ninth transaction as an acquirer, but its first transaction in over five years. Carousel last made a series of seven acquisitions during a two year period from mid 2009 to early 2011.
Expanding and Cementing Offerings
- One Stop Shop for UCC Needs: Carousel only recently received authorization to service Cisco’s product lines in March. The acquisition bolsters Carousel’s nascent Cisco services capabilities for its customer base of over 6,000 businesses, of which 70% use Cisco products. Combined with its existing qualifications for Avaya and Microsoft’s collaboration technologies, Carousel can now service customers looking to migrate across the three major collaboration and communications vendors.
Jumpstarting the Business Through M&A: Without a doubt, Carousel’s recent move providing Cisco services was a defensive maneuver by the company to maintain its existing customer base. Avaya’s revenues have dropped approximately 18% in the last 3 years, while Cisco’s have grown 7% during the same period. Many Avaya services partners have faced trends that represent significant headwinds, including Avaya customers migrating to other technology providers and Avaya reducing marketing dollars for its partners. This acquisition allows Carousel to hedge its bets in the UCC space, and saves the company from years of developing a sizable Cisco practice on its own.- Expanding Vertical Reach: Carousel and Atrion share very few customers, with only 25 of Atrion’s 350 customers utilizing Carousel’s services. Atrion provides access into the higher education, business services and banking industries, whereas Carousel has more presence in the health care and financial services space.
- Strong Growth, Solid Results: Carousel co-founder and CEO Jeff Gardner began his career as an accountant, but is today considered a thought leader in this space. He has been instrumental in growing the company to the point where it has achieved strategic competitiveness in the unified communications space.
- Active Space in Past and Present: UCC has historically been a very active space, especially as today’s enterprises have grown increasingly global. martinwolf client SPS was acquired by Court Square in 2011, and today many other large players are looking for a similar exit.
For more information about this transaction, click here to read the press release.
martinwolf was not the advisor in this transaction.
