Daniel J SaitPanduit Corp, a global leader of electrical and network infrastructure solutions, has announced it has acquired global AV manufacturer Atlona.
Pictured above are (Left to Right): Marc Naese, Panduit SVP Network Infrastructure Business; Dennis Renaud, Panduit CEO; Ilya Khayn, Atlona CEO and Co-founder; Michael Khain, Atlona VP Product Development/Engineering and Co-founder.
Atlona designs and develops products for a diverse range of commercial and residential AV and IT markets worldwide, including education, business, government, entertainment, and healthcare.
Atlona’s product categories include networked AV, signal distribution, wireless collaboration, and AV system automation. The company’s solutions enable system designers, integrators, consultants and installers to simplify installation, minimise maintenance and maximise the versatility of premier automated control solutions.
“Atlona has been at the forefront in developing cutting-edge AV technology that embraces the full potential of the convergence of AV and network infrastructure,” explains Dennis Renaud, president and CEO of Panduit.
“Its industry-leading solutions complement Panduit’s extensive physical infrastructure portfolio, which will allow us to offer customers a quality end-to-end solution as they move to increasingly complex network infrastructure systems.”
Ilya Khayn, Atlona CEO adds, “There are strong synergies between our companies including a culture of providing innovative, high-quality, customer-driven products, along with outstanding customer support capabilities. This partnership will ultimately provide our market channels with a single-source solution and expand our footprint globally.”
As part of the acquisition, the Atlona team will join Panduit’s Enterprise business group. Atlona will continue to serve its customers from its global headquarters in San Jose, Calif. for all sales, customer support, and training related inquiries.
Ilya explains that the deal has actually been in the works for a few years, as the synergies between the different sectors covered by each company bring obvious advantages to each and allow the companies to target fresh areas, as well as bring a more comprehensive solution for potential clients.
Preparation for the deal has accelerated over the last six months, with the deal officially announced on Jan 21 on the day of the data-focused BICSI show in Orlando and just ahead of this year’s ISE show in Amsterdam.
Ilya adds that, up to a point, things will look the same on the ground, as Atlona customers can continue to engage with the same structures as before, but also enjoy an expanded experience and offering for integrators and end user companies alike.
A driver for the deal has been Atlona’s strong performance in recent years particularly in RnD. Panduit was keen to add Atlona’s AV connectivity and control abilities to its network and industrial wiring infrastructure offerings and in turn offer those abilities to a wider audience including the datacoms/data centre sectors.
Ilya says, “The new arrangement means Atlona can features in a wider range of and larger projects than ever before. Panduit’s larger corporate structure including 500 sales staff, demo and experiences centres, 39 sales offices around the globe and more muscular logistics, gives our brand more firepower than before. We will also be able to increase the reach of our training support.”
With Panduit’s background in the commercial sector, the main changes in operational and sales opportunities will come in this area, with Atlona’s residential presence seeing less impact.
Ilya enthuses, “The biggest advantage for us will be concentrating on what we do best, creating great products and allowing the new infrastructure to take the brand to places it has not been before being able to target our traditional markets but also the IT and datacoms world is a very exciting prospect.”
Tom Kelly, VP of enterprise business, at Panduit, adds, “Many of our customers had been asking for the types of AV focused solutions that Atlona supplies and we can now offer those much earlier in each projects creating a more joined up offering for our clients delivering a complete solution. AV over IP abilities in particular we have been impressed by and we can now offer those too.”
All of Atlona’s products will continue to be backed by the brand’s 10-year award-winning warranty.