CE Pro June 2021 - 10

IndustryPulse
NEWS | ANALYSIS

SnapAV to Acquire
Access Networks
Industry behemoth SnapAV bolsters
presence in home networking by adding
Access Networks and its enterprisegrade solutions. By Jason Knott
FURTHERING its position
as a complete one-stop
shop for integrators, SnapAV
has announced that it will
acquire premier networking
solutions provider Access
Networks. The acquisition,
which was expected to close
last month, will broaden
SnapAV's networking portfolio with new products and
managed services including
system design, configuration,
monitoring and support.
SnapAV already has the
market leader in home networks with its Araknis brand,
according to the CE Pro 100
Brand Analysis Study. Araknis
is used by 71% of top integrators, while Access Networks
is the No. 2 brand with a 45%
market share. SnapAV's Pakedge brand, which came as
part of its Control4 acquisition, is the No. 3 brand used
by 39% of the CE Pro 100.
It was just a few months
ago that Hagai Feiner, founder and president of Access
Networks, announced he
was stepping aside from his
role as CEO and handing
over the reins to longtime
chief sales officer Bryce

Nordstrand. Feiner's move
was so he could pursue his
other passions, which include
real estate development.
The company was coming
off its best year ever in 2020,
driven by the demand for
Work From Home network
solutions due to the pandemic. Feiner tells CE Pro the
negotiations for the sale of
Access Networks to SnapAV
began in earnest in January
of this year.
" Adding Access Networks
to the SnapAV portfolio
enables our partners to tackle
any size commercial or residential network project, " says
G Paul Hess, SnapAV chief
product officer. " The pandemic has affirmed our belief that
a solid network infrastructure
is critical in any home or
business. Access Networks
complements our OvrCenabled networking solutions
including Araknis and Pakedge
solutions and strengthens
our partners' ability to handle
network deployments of any
size for any need.
" More SnapAV partners
can now do more complex
networking jobs with greater

The move complements SnapAV's OvrC-enabled networking solutions from Araknis and Pakedge, according to the
company.

confidence, knowing that
they are supported by Access
Networks., Hess adds.
With Access Networks'
design and deployment
services, dealers are able to
deliver rapid proposals for
clients and projects, SnapAV
notes. The design, hardware
configuration, monitoring,
and support that is included in the managed services
results in a plug-and-play
deployment that is secure,
reliable and scalable, making
integrators more efficient
and productive, the company
adds.
Nordstrand believes by
joining the SnapAV family, it
will enable Access Networks
to accelerate its growth.
" We're excited to see how,
together, Access Networks
and SnapAV will equip our
partners with more capabilities and confidence to grow
their business in a way that

they wouldn't have been
able to before, " he says.
Further amplifying that
point, Feiner emphasizes,
" This acquisition signals
the start of the next great
chapter in the history of
Access Networks. SnapAV
enables us to scale at an
unprecedented rate in our
core market while enabling
us to develop and fully
commercialize new market
opportunities. "
SnapAV will soon integrate
Access Networks solutions
with its family of existing
products, including Control4,
OvrC, Wattbox, Araknis, and
Pakedge, to offer deployments with more scale, better control and smart power
built into the design. Access
Networks products will be
made available via SnapAV's
e-commerce site and network of Local Pro Stores in
the coming months.

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CE Pro June 2021

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