OwnersEdge Inc. today announced it has acquired two Maple Grove, Minnesota-based companies: Rhino Communication Rentals LLC and Infinity Wireless Inc.
Rhino designs and distributes rental communications solutions for film and production, outdoor events and construction. Sister company Infinity designs and deploys Motorola communication systems for utility companies, manufacturers and hotels. Both were established in 1998 by spouses Dave and Michelle Toutloff. Dave, Michelle and their two children will continue to be involved with Rhino and Infinity. The companies’ existing offices will remain open, and all of its employees will be retained, said Rob Dillon, executive vice president of OwnersEdge.
OwnersEdge is an $85 million umbrella firm that now has more than 300 employees among five portfolio companies: Baycom Inc., CC&N, QComp Technologies, TourGuide Solutions and now Rhino. Infinity will merge into Baycom. All of Rhino and Inifinity’s employees were retained in the transactions, and have joined the OwnersEdge employee stock ownership plan.
These transactions, both of which were completed May 1, are OwnersEdge’s first outside Wisconsin.
“As we looked at each of the businesses, Baycom was particularly scalable because we’re not necessarily constrained by geographic territories,” Dillon said.
Baycom has been supplying Panasonic rugged laptops and in-car video systems for public safety and utility customers in the Minneapolis market for a couple of years already, he said, but this is Baycom’s first foray into the rental market.
OwnersEdge has made several acquisitions and divestitures over the past few years, and president and chief executive officer Lisa Reardon said the goal is to grow to eight portfolio companies.
“We believe that Rhino has significant growth potential and adds a synergistic communications business to our portfolio,” Reardon said. “Merging Infinity into Baycom gives us a brick-and-mortar location to serve our existing Baycom clients in Minnesota and allows us to introduce new products and services to clients Infinity currently works with.”
In addition, OwnersEdge has moved its headquarters from Brookfield to Pewaukee as it expands. The new headquarters is located at N16 W23217 Stone Ridge Drive, Suite 250, in the City of Pewaukee, and 11 employees have moved there. Its portfolio companies CC&N and TourGuide Solutions and four employees continue to be based at the Brookfield location, 3325 Gateway Road.
