AVM Finds Buyer After Ten-Month Search; Founders Retain Minority Stake
The founders of AVM have sold the majority of their company to investor Imker Capital Partners. The Fritzbox manufacturer announced the deal on July 10, 2024, without disclosing the financial terms. The AVM founders will keep a minority stake in the company.
Company CEO Johannes Nill stated that the partnership with the investor aligns with their vision for the company’s future. The goals include growth through new products and enhanced internationalization.
Imker Capital Partners, based in London, has only ten employees.
In 2023, the Berlin-based communication specialist AVM, with 890 employees, generated a revenue of 580 million euros. In 2022, the profit was estimated to be between 80 and 90 million euros. Competitors in the router market include Netgear and Ubiquiti from the USA, Huawei and TP-Link from China, and Asus from Taiwan.
The acquisition was registered with the Austrian Federal Competition Authority on July 8, 2024. This involved Rucio Investment, a company controlled by Imker, which announced through Germany’s Spree 24 Beteiligung the acquisition of all AVM shares.
AVM has been up for sale since September 2023, as its founders are around 70 years old.
AVM (Audiovisual Marketing) was founded in 1986 in West Berlin by Johannes Nill, Peter Faxel, and Ulrich Müller-Albring. Initially, they offered services for Bildschirmtext (BTX). Early modems used an acoustic coupler into which the telephone handset was placed.
With the advent of the modern internet, AVM introduced modems with increasingly higher transmission rates, and standards like ISDN and later DSL were established. AVM provided the necessary equipment, first to companies like the Federal Post Office and Datev, and later to private users.
In 2004, AVM introduced the Fritzbox at Cebit, which is now arguably the most well-known router in Germany. Until the sale, AVM Computersysteme remained in the hands of its three founders.
