Mergers and acquisitions: Rolling powerhouses

• Features

• 06/05/2026

The professional AV integration industry has been consolidating at pace. Over the past years we have seen Hibino extend its reach into Australia and Singapore while also consolidating and expanding its position in Japan with the recent acquisition of Ascent. Ricoh from Japan has acquired in Canada and Southeast Asia. Private equity has taken positions across the US and Europe.

The direction of past acquisitions, broadly speaking, has followed a familiar logic. Larger Western players absorbed Asian AV businesses, looking to develop capabilities for delivering in the APAC region. We may now be entering into a new era. Online Instruments is one of India’s most prominent and ambitious AV integrators. Level 3 is an American firm with deep brand equity in the US market. The deal we are focusing on, which closed late last year, was initiated by Online Instruments making it one of the rare instances of an Asian integrator acquiring a Western peer.

Manoj Kumar Choudhury, whole time director at Online Instruments, comments: “The US has always been top of our mind when we wanted to grow, because that’s the market where everything flows out to the world. We wanted to be there.”

Jeremy Elsesser, president and CEO at Level 3, frames his thoughts from the other side of the table: “A typical merger and acquisition strategy is lots of big integrators buying smaller ones and unifying them into a single brand — this was very different. Level 3 has incredible brand equity in the US. Online has incredible brand equity in India. We’ve been working really well together for a long time. It felt like a natural progression of our partnership, and quite unique in the industry.”

The relationship between the two companies predates the acquisition. Both integrators are member of PSNI and the two firms had been serving shared enterprise customers across different geographies.

Elsesser details how the deal was formulated: “Once the conversation happened literally one year ago at ISE (2025), it just felt like a natural progression. We’d spent three years identifying the right partner. We had an owner who was ready to move on, a need to either recapitalise or continue organic growth and then Online Instruments, a company we already knew and trusted, came along with a proposition that helped address what was wanted at the stage we were at.”

After the acquisition

The acquisition is just the start. The real work begins when the two companies come together. With a combined headcount of approximately 700 people across two continents, the integration challenge from a business perspective is substantial for Online Instruments and Level 3. Both leaders are candid about the fact that the work of bringing the organisations together has only just begun. Leadership summits are planned. Shared processes are being mapped. A three-year strategic roadmap is in development.

What strikes both Choudhury and Elsesser is that the cultural alignment, one of the hardest part of any merger, was already in place before the deal was signed. The word that comes up repeatedly in conversation is quality.

Elsesser says: “Level 3 has been really founded in a reputation of quality. That is something we found as a kindred spirit in Online Instruments. We’ve been working closely with them, helping them continue to evolve many of their processes. The mindset is to take a very careful and intentional integration strategy, because we both have incredible clients and incredible employees that need to be very well managed and cared for as we bring these two organisations together.”

Choudhury echoes the sentiment: “As I told you, we are progressive, aggressive, but quality is top of mind. One hundred percent delivery and client satisfaction and that will always be at the forefront of everything we do.”

The deliberate pace of integration is itself a strategic choice. Rather than rushing to consolidate branding, systems, and operations, both leaders are prioritising stability for clients and for staff. The short-term plan is explicitly about protecting what already works. The longerterm ambitions, which span the US, India, APAC, and the Middle East, will follow.

The future of M&A

The Online Instruments–Level 3 deal is one transaction in a broader market shift. Denis Pozigun, principal at DAK Group, an advisory firm active at the centre of AV M&A, says deal volume has never been higher: “Last year was a record in the M&A space. And the pipeline we see right now, even just from our group, it’s enormous.”

Pozigun points to a notable shift in the character of that deal flow: the buyers are no longer exclusively coming from within the AV industry. He explains: “There are a lot of strategic buyers that come in from the non-traditional spaces that a lot of companies actually aren’t aware of. Electrical contractors, furniture manufacturers and more, they see the potential. The volume of this business is enormous, so they are building strength to strength.”

Elsesser traces the origins of this demand shift: “Everybody realised how critical communication infrastructure was in order to maintain business operations. The consolidation is a response to the market. Large global enterprises want a quality, consistent experience across many regions. They come to integrators saying, can you do business in this country? Can you do business in that country? That demand is what is bringing all of these companies together.”

Choudhury frames it as a necessary correction: “Technology has changed enormously. It can no longer be said that this belongs to one particular segment of AV. IT players are getting into AV. A lot of mixing is happening. It’s a correction happening for a better tomorrow.”

Pozigun is blunt about what this means for smaller operators: “The smaller traditional AV players, they understand the situation. There are big, monster organisations coming in with different financial facilities. They can do things that smaller integrators cannot do.”

Aggressive US or International buyers are not limiting themselves to home territory either. Pozingun continues: “There are almost no places around the world where M&A activity does not exist today.”

A new way of business

Beyond ownership structures, there is a deeper technological shift underway that both the consolidation trend and the Online Instruments–Level 3 deal reflect. The AV industry is moving, in Elsesser’s words, from being hardware-defined to software-defined. This transition is compressing the distance between AV and IT in ways that have significant implications for business models.

Elsesser says: “I believe the future of AV is software-defined, not hardware-defined. We’re seeing all of these manufacturers building products for Microsoft Teams Rooms, Zoom Rooms. It really doesn’t matter what hardware is on the table because the experience is the same.”

Pozigun connects the technological shift directly to the commoditisation dynamic that is attracting outside capital. He says: “In the era of AI, the time frame for everything is shorter, everyone is expecting things faster. In our industry, especially workplace technology, it gets simplified in many ways and almost commoditised. And that’s what’s attracting buyers who do not come from traditional spaces.”

The IT parallel is instructive. As IT became critical infrastructure — standardised at the hardware layer, differentiated at the services layer — integrators who built their businesses around hardware margin had to reinvent around managed services and outcome delivery. AV is following a similar arc, and those best positioned to benefit have the scale and service infrastructure to operate as true managed service providers rather than projectbased installers.

Consolidation, Pozigun notes, is not limited to integrators: “This is not just happening in integration. I can see this on the manufacturing side as well. Follow the money and you will see who’s now acquiring the manufacturers. It’s private equity partners and hedge funds. There’s a lot of capital behind those manufacturers. They do not come into those spaces for no reason. They’re coming in to expand, grow.”

What comes next?

Acquisitions and mergers are not the end goal. They should be viewed as the start of a new journey. Asked about the road ahead, both Choudhury and Elsesser state that the immediate priority is connecting teams, aligning processes, and ensuring that clients in both markets experience no disruption. Beyond that, the appetite is clearly expansive. The Middle East is on the radar. APAC is already a significant part of the business but offers opportunities for further growth. The three-year plan being developed aims to map out how the combined entity pursues those opportunities in a structured, deliberate way.

Elsesser says: “I’m very excited for the additional access the merger provides Level 3 and the resources it’s going to provide to a number of our very large enterprise clients. We’re excited to take what we do from a programme management level and take it across the world, knowing that we have the support.”

For business owners weighing their own options in this environment, Pozigun’s counsel is pragmatic. Many of the founders and businessmen operating in the world are people who built their businesses from scratch. But the time is ripe for many to have a succession plan in place. Ambition is fuelled by capital and having a gameplan for future success is essential.

Pozigun advises: “Build your business to last forever, but be ready to sell it tomorrow. My suggestion for any business looking to potentially exit or sell is to make sure you’re working with the right advisor. M&A is much more complex than a lot of people expect. And don’t try to time the market — because the time could be today.”

The deal between Online Instruments and Level 3 will not be the last of its kind. As enterprise clients continue to demand global consistency, as the software-defined transition reshapes hardware economics, and as capital continues to flow into a sector that has moved firmly from discretionary to essential, the pressure on independent integrators to find partners, merge, or be acquired will only intensify.

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