Pritzker Group Private Capital has acquired Milestone AV Technologies, a designer, marketer and distributor of audio-visual products. Milestone was purchased from The Duchossois Group, which will retain a significant interest in the business and continue to have representatives serve on the board of directors. The Duchossois Group acquired Milestone in May 2008 from private equity investors led by Friedman Fleischer & Lowe.
“Our acquisition of Milestone demonstrates Pritzker Group Private Capital’s strategy of investing in clear market leaders with excellent management teams. We are well aligned with the Duchossois family in the view that our permanent, proprietary capital base allows our management teams to build great businesses over the long term” said Tony Pritzker, Pritzker Group Private Capital managing partner.
Milestone AV Technologies is a designer, marketer and distributor of branded audio visual mounting equipment and display products for flat panel displays, projectors, projection screens, audio-visual furniture, and speakers. The company’s consumer and commercial products are sold principally under the Chief, Da-Lite and Sanus brands. Milestone serves more than 5,000 global customers, including professional AV dealers, regional home theater dealers, consumer electronics retailers, mass merchants and original equipment manufacturers. The company maintains global operations with offices in the US, Europe and China. The company is headquartered near Minneapolis in Eden Prairie, MN (www.milestone.com).
The Duchossois Group is a privately held business formed in 1983 to manage companies owned by the Duchossois family. The Group’s companies are active in the residential security, lighting and convenience products markets and the commercial control, automation and digital media markets. Duchossois Capital Management is a private investment firm that invests across an array of opportunities and complements the family’s operating businesses within The Duchossois Group. The firm is based in the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst (www.duch.com).
“Together with the Milestone management team, we have a clear path forward that continues the company’s long history of new product innovation, international growth and add-on acquisitions. Our two families have enjoyed both a personal and business relationship for over 40 years,” said Craig Duchossois, CEO of The Duchossois Group. “We look forward to our next generation of partnership. This transaction is representative of the types of opportunities that will be pursued by Duchossois Capital Management, the company we recently formed to manage our family’s strategic investments.”
Pritzker Group, led by Tony and J.B. Pritzker, has three principal investment teams: Private Capital, which acquires and operates North America-based middle-market companies in the manufactured products, services and healthcare sectors; Venture Capital, which is the largest technology venture investor based in the Midwest; and Asset Management, which partners with investment managers across global public markets. The Pritzker Group is based in Chicago (www.pritzkergroup.com).
© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 12-12-13