Biamp has announced the acquisition of Cambridge Sound Management (CSM) from Gladstone Investment Corp. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, CSM is a leading brand in the fast-growing sound masking market.
CSM is said to be the only provider of direct and in-plenum sound masking solutions, and the most frequently installed sound masking brand. With approximately 50% market share and more than 20,000 installations, CSM systems are being put to work at organisations of all sizes and types including over half of Fortune 100 companies that look to the company to manage sound effectively and create satisfying working conditions within dense open office environments and other settings.
Its solutions have broad application across market segments including corporate, healthcare, financial services, education, government, technology, and retail. CSM sells through a network of skilled integrators that give it unmatched distribution and support reach. This model and many of the integrators themselves are identical to Biamp’s, which allows a straightforward and speedy combination and expansion of both entities’ distribution networks.
Biamp president, CEO, and co-chairman Rashid Skaf commented: “The acquisition of Cambridge Sound Management unites two great brands in the professional audiovisual market. Together, we offer customers better access to industry leading solutions that manage sound and video to address a wide array of modern communications and collaboration challenges. It has been just one year since I led the acquisition of Biamp with Highlander Partners with the stated intent of leveraging it as a platform to build a respected provider of comprehensive audiovisual solutions. This transaction is the first evidence of that strategy being implemented but far from the last. Biamp is on the move!”
Under Skaf’s direction, the company has charted an aggressive growth strategy that blends organic product line and distribution expansion with entry into new markets via acquisition. The addition of CSM is the first realisation of the second part of that strategy and a significant commitment to an entirely new solution category.
Biamp currently offers a wide range of AV solutions that facilitate communication and collaboration in conference rooms, lecture halls, auditoria, as well as paging and notification for open areas like offices, concourses, retail centres, and casinos. CSM adds an important new sound masking offering for these open areas that integrates naturally with Biamp’s solutions technologically and operationally. Users buying from Biamp will now get both capabilities within a single integrated platform.
CSM will join Biamp as a product family within the company’s portfolio, with business functions gradually being blended to form a single Biamp business.
