Livewire buys Home Media

A local home media business has acquired the assets of one of its competitors.

Livewire, which has 11 employees and a showroom on West Clay Street in Henrico, struck a deal with Home Media, a 16-year-old business based in Midlothian.

Ray Lepper, president and founder of Home Media, said it was time for a change.

“I’m 58. It’s not a life sentence. I’m looking to do some other stuff while I’ve still got the chance,” Lepper said.

Lepper said he got to know his former competitor and owner of Livewire, Henry Clifford, at a meeting of the Virginia Council of CEOs.

Both companies install custom home entertainment systems. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“One is always wary, or at least I am, of competitors. When you get to know them, you get to learn a lot of stuff. This guy would have been one of my friends anyway,” Lepper said.

In talking about the industry, thoughts of making a deal started to emerge.

“We have too many little companies. In this economy you have to be bigger, and that was the impetus to do a deal,” Lepper said.

Lepper said that the doors to his Alverser Street showroom will close Wednesday and that any remaining inventory will move to Livewire’s location near Willow Lawn.

Lepper said he also made the deal to keep his customers served.

“I’ve got a thousand customers that have systems and need help,” he said. “I have client history that goes back to 1996, and documents, all that stuff, will go over to Livewire so they can provide those hundreds and hundreds of clients with the same service I have over the years.”

Livewire President Henry Clifford said the Home Media customer base was one of the best parts of the deal.

“It would have been nothing short of foolish to not completely leverage the opportunity we had there to preserve continuity,” Clifford said.

Clifford said he has extended offers to three Home Media employees and said he plans to make offers to a few more to fill out the team.

“We are really excited as we welcome a host of new clients, and we are ready,” Clifford said.

As for Lepper, he plans to serve in an advisory role over the next few months. Aside from that, he says he’s going to enjoy life.

“I plan to goof off for a while. I’ve been at this full time and full tilt,” Lepper said. “You get married to one of these companies, and it’s what you do all the time.”

Al Harris is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to Al@richmondbizsense.com.