Legrand Acquires Draper-Based Luxul Wireless

We’re very excited to see Luxul partner with Legrand. We’re very impressed with the organization and management, we couldn’t think of a better home to have the business be a part of and continue to thrive here in Utah.

Some Utah-significant acquisition news is coming down the chute, so grab a frozen yogurt and brace yourself — Draped-based Luxul Wireless has been acquired by global powerhouse Legrand.

“Understanding we’re a venture-backed company and the goal is to get a return for shareholders on that, the goal was always to drive the company to a profitable state,” Luxul CEO Jeff Curtis told Beehive Startups. “The focus was never really to IPO the company so acquisition becomes the next logical choice in terms of finding an exit strategy. The industry we’re in, we thought that would certainly be viable.”

Founded in 2000, Luxul Wireless has spent many years perfecting their brand of IP networking systems for small-to-medium sized businesses. Curtis came aboard in 2008 and, with financial backing from Signal Peak Ventures, helped steer Luxul towards the inevitable destination of acquisition, where they will continue as a Utah-based division within Legrand.

As for revenue, Luxul has indeed been driven to a profitable state with totals in excess of $20 million, a 93% growth spurt from the year prior. That profitability led to increased interest from Legrand, who is looking to build upon their reputation as a world-wide specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures.

“We’re very excited to see Luxul partner with Legrand,” said Ron Heinz, Managing Partner at Signal Peak. “We’re very impressed with the organization and management, we couldn’t think of a better home to have the business be a part of and continue to thrive here in Utah.”

Some would say this is a classic business fairy tale, something to be read gently at night to all the young business babies out there — a Utah-based company, backed by a Utah-based VC firm, is acquired by a successful, global business and everyone lives happily ever after. Of course, the acquisition represents a win for all sides of the triangle and each party realizes it couldn’t have been accomplished alone.

“With Signal Peak, you get a lot of business acumen,” said Curtis. “Ron has his stripes from having been in the industry, running businesses and building successful organizations. If you have guys like that contributing on the board, it’s expertise you can lean on and a sounding board for bouncing off ideas and concepts that help shape the business.”

“What Jeff did that was smart, he really broadened the product line,” said Heinz. “Started out as a wi-fi access point for the home, went into switches and more intelligent technology like routers, and really took the product line to the next level while building the distribution channel.”

Published 4/21/2016