Equipment dealer SCMS, continuing recent aggressive growth, is buying competitor Bradley Broadcast and Pro Audio.
The deal was finalized Friday when the companies signed a purchase agreement. The deal is expected to close on Jan. 13, 2009. The terms and price were not disclosed.
For now, the two companies have in place an interim operating agreement whereby Bradley will continue to deal with its customers by telephone and e-mail, but the orders will actually be shipped and billed through SCMS. Once the deal closes, Bradley Broadcast will function as a sales office of SCMS.
SCMS owner Bob Cauthen told Radio World the deal will be good for his business particularly in the government sector and because he was able to retain key Bradley staff. Bradley was owned by David Matthews, a former radio chief engineer who purchased it in 2007.
Long-time Bradley executive Art Reed and account exec Bob Eburg will continue to staff an office based in Frederick, Md. SCMS is headquartered in North Carolina and has 10 field sales offices.
This is the second notable purchase of a competitor in two years for SCMS. In 2007 Cauthen purchased the Harris Broadcast Center, the product resale arm of Harris and descendant of the former Allied Broadcast Equipment. SCMS also recently signed as a reseller of Google automation and became the U.S. stocking distributor for broadcast products of Bird Electronics.
Bradley was started in 1983 as a subsidiary of The Music Emporium, a national catalog dealer in musical instruments and pro sound reinforcement, according to earlier Radio World reporting. In 1985, it was incorporated as a separate entity. In 2000, the parent company was sold to The Guitar Center and Bradley later moved from its Rockville, Md., location to Frederick.
