ACCO, the publicly-traded corporation behind brands such as Swingline, Mead, Five Star, and Texta, has agreed to acquire Woodinville, Wash.-based gaming hardware maker PowerA from its previous owners at Bensussen Deutsch & Associates.
ACCO’s initial press release discloses that the acquisition included a “total upfront consideration” of $340 million, plus an additional earnout of up to $55 million cash based upon PowerA meeting unspecified growth objectives in the next two years.
Under its new ownership, PowerA will retain its current employees and headquarters in Woodinville. Co-founder and President Eric Bensussen will also stay aboard as the team leader.
“Looking beyond into next year, the global infrastructure and operational resources ACCO Brands has built will provide PowerA vast opportunity to continue on our current growth trajectory allowing us to deliver the products our fans love to more gamers around the world,” Bensussen said in an email.
PowerA, founded in 2009, produces third-party hardware and accessories for the console and mobile gaming market, such as controllers, chargers and screen protectors. It expects net sales of approximately $200 million in 2020, a 20% increase over 2019, and profit of $50 million.
The acquisition of PowerA is a surprising move from Illinois-based ACCO, which is self-admittedly best known for its various lines of office supplies. If you’re American and have ever owned a spiral notebook or stapler, there’s a good chance it was made by an ACCO brand.
However, ACCO also owns Kensington, which makes a variety of accessories for the PC market (including security locks that are compatible with the Xbox Series X), so branching out into the console business isn’t quite as much of a leap as it might initially appear.
ACCO’s plans for PowerA in the future include leveraging development and supply chains between PowerA and its portfolio company Kensington, as well as expanding PowerA’s sales presence in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
More importantly, the PowerA acquisition is part of a plan by ACCO to evolve its business. “This acquisition represents a major step in our continuing strategy to transition ACCO Brands into a faster growing, consumer-focused company,” ACCO Chairman Boris Elisman said in a statement. “Our Kensington computer accessories business has shown strong growth over the past few years. PowerA is a similar business to Kensington, but is in the console gaming accessories market. It will be a great fit.”
Are you prepared to be a next-gen champion?
Shop our enhanced controllers: https://t.co/8XIAsnwajo#XboxSeriesX #PowerYourDreams pic.twitter.com/DMULy3Dm4E
— PowerA Gaming (@PowerA) November 11, 2020
PowerA was founded in 2009 by Bensussen and Jay Deutsch, as a department within their Woodinville-based merchandise agency Bensussen Deutsch & Associates. Its breakout product is arguably the MOGA, a line of specialized controllers and phone clips for mobile gaming fans.
PowerA is also known for its officially-licensed gamepads for PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles, such as last year’s Legend of Zelda-themed Enhanced Wireless Controller for the Switch.
In the last couple of years, PowerA has expanded its line of products to include headsets, as well as a new line of higher-end controllers under the FUSION label. It acquired the California-based company LucidSound in June, bringing its co-founders onboard the PowerA team with an aim toward further expanding its business into audio options.
Further announcements for PowerA’s line of products are promised for 2021. Its next upcoming accessory, the “Nano” rechargeable compact controller for the Nintendo Switch, has run into manufacturing delays due to COVID-19 and has been postponed until an unspecified point this winter.
