Rent-A-PC Picks Up Another Competitor
By Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 11/28/2005
Continuing an acquisition spree extending almost back to the company's formation two decades ago, Rent-A-PC is growing again with the purchase of another competitor.
Rent-A-PC is buying Bit-by-Bit, a Eugene, Ore.-based audiovisual and computer rental company with 36 employees and offices in nine cities in the West and Northwest, including Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego and San Francisco.
Rent-A-PC – which, among other things, rents computer equipment to tradeshow exhibitors – is particularly strong in the Northeast and Southeast, with offices in nine cities, including Atlanta, Boston, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
Bit-by-Bit will continue to operate as a stand-alone company. CEO Tim Cling will join Rent-A-PC as its Western division vice president.
Rent-A-PC CEO Julian Sandler said Bit-by-Bit's technical, sales and management teams will be important additions. With the acquisition, Rent-A-PC's annual sales next year are expected to top $30 million, an increase of 35 percent over this year.
The purchase was Rent-A-PC's 15th. Between 1989 and 1999, the company picked up the Computer Factory, ComputerRental, Computer Service & Rental, Fox Computer Rentals, Micro Rent, PC Quick Rent and PC Systems Plus.
Since 2000, Rent-A-PC has acquired AllService Computer Rentals, Inacom Computer Rentals, Keystone Computer Rentals, PC Rentals Plus, Per-imeter Micro Rentals and now Bit-by-Bit. The latest acquisition is the largest in terms of number of offices.
