Kingswood Capital Management, LLC, a private equity firm, announced that it has acquired Houston TX-based WAVE Electronics. Kingswood will merge WAVE with its portfolio company, AVAD. In bringing together WAVE and AVAD, Kingswood will create a value-added distributor of audio, video, security, and home automation solutions in the consumer electronics industry. The new company will be focused on the commercial and residential 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 award-winning services for dealers and vendors across the United States and Canada.
Mark Fukuda, former Chief Operating Officer of WAVE, will take over as the Chief Executive Officer of the combined new enterprise. Key members of the new executive management team will include Bill Steckel as Chief Finance Officer, 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 TX, and its initial objective will be to combine the residential AV, pro AV and security brands across all of its North American locations. It also plans to integrate its dealer services, including tech support, programming services, marketing services and dealer programs.
Mark Fukuda added, “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. AVAD has built a strong presence in the pro AV channel. WAVE has done the same in the residential security space. Combining that with our collective strength in the residential AV markets, and our new larger North American footprint is a winning combination.”