Savant Ties Make ACT’s Acquisition of AViX Unique

Mergers and acquisitions are pretty common during recessions. Companies team up to consolidate resources, cut costs and expand their markets; or more insulated businesses scoop up their shakier competitors.

Neither of these scenarios played out when Advanced Communication Technologies (ACT), an integration company on the South Shore of Boston, bought Cape Cod-based competitor AViX.

It is a unique acquisition, but AViX was always unique.

The integration company’s CEO, Jim Carroll, is also the president of Savant Systems. That arrangement worked out quite well for the first couple of years after Savant was launched in 2005; it was a start-up control manufacturer with an in-house integration company fine-tuning its installations.

“It really allowed us to do a lot of methodologies, so there was a lot of benefit and value to owning an A/V company,” Carroll says.

Conflict of Interest

Soon, however, as Savant and AViX grew, “AViX created conflict for [Savant’s] local dealers,” Carroll explains. “It became more of a necessary evil.”

That’s what led to the sale to ACT, which Carroll calls “a bright and intelligent company” with “the same philosophical approach.”

The acquisition appears to be a logical fit for Rockland-based ACT, which had already expanded to Cape Cod, opening an office in Falmouth, not far from AViX's former Osterville home.

In fact, ACT was one of those local dealers with whom Savant’s AViX relationship created conflict, explains Paul Diggin, managing director of ACT. He remembers talking to Carroll about the possibility of ACT carrying Savant.

“We thought Savant was really interesting, but we didn’t want to do business with somebody that owns a competitor of ours,” he says.

That conflict of interest between Savant, its in-house installation company AViX and all AViX’s competitors essentially stifled the growth of Savant’s dealer base in Massachusetts.

“It got to point where they wanted to do something about it,” Diggin says, adding that the Savant/AViX team approached him about a possible acquisition.

Geographic Appeal

Although ACT already has a Cape Cod office, “we’re not a Cape Cod company,” Diggin says. That’s one reason why acquiring AViX, pure Cape Codders, was appealing. “They’re right in the center of the Cape.”

AViX has a large client base, many of which have Savant or AMX automation systems.

ACT is a longtime AMX dealer and it's retaining an AViX staff of original Savant dealers. Successfully servicing AViX’s customers not only solidifies a Cape Cod foundation but it should be a referral base, too.

There are no contingencies in the contract that require ACT to push Savant, Diggin says, but selling it and supporting it behooves all parties. “The reality is that, if all goes well, we’ll be doing a lot more Savant systems.”

Welcoming Savant

Apple-friendly Savant is a nice fit for ACT’s product mix, Diggin says. “I definitely think it’s cool to have a control system that caters to Apple, since many of our customers have a lot of tie-ins with Apple stuff.”

Of course, Diggins hopes four-year-old Savant is on the cusp getting a lot more popular, adding that “we’ll definitely be on the early side of the game.”

Programming-wise, ACT likes what it sees with Savant so far. Keith Bartholomew, director of operations and co-founder of ACT, has already dove in and completed his first Savant system. It took about a quarter of how long it would have taken to do the same system with AMX, Diggin estimates.

The acquisition, meanwhile, is a reflection that ACT is doing well financially, even though Diggin says it got a “good deal monetarily” for AViX. ACT reports $2,469,152 in 2008 custom revenues and will be No. 93 on the 2009 CE Pro 100 list (when that report is released next week), up two notches from the previous year.

The short-term goal for leveraging the AViX acquisition is “putting our best foot forward and showing AViX customers that we’ll take care of them,” Diggon says.

“We hope to build long-term relationship that will help our business in terms of becoming a big, strong player on the Cape.”

Robert Archer contributed to this article.