Data Center

Legrand acquires Champion ONE brands, including Approved Networks and U.S. Critical

Feb. 11, 2021

Legrand says the acquisition of optical networking technologies extends its support of mission critical IT space needs.

On February 11 Legrand acquired the Champion ONE (C1) family of brands from A&M Capital Opportunities. The C1 brands are “leading providers of optical networking components and solutions for the telecommunication, content provider, data center, and enterprise markets,” Legrand said when announcing the deal, which it described as its “latest move … to support data center and mission-critical IT’s ever-growing need for reliable, highly available and scalable power and connectivity solutions.”

The C1 brands include Champion ONE, Approved Networks, and U.S. Critical. C1 has offices and warehouse locations in Forest Lake, CA and Independence, OH. The brands become part of Legrand North and Central America’s Data, Power and Control (DPC) division, which also includes acquired brands AFCO, Electrorack, Ortronics, Raritan, Server Technology, and Starline.

“The C1 family of brands complement Legrand’s previous acquisitions to provide strong world-class engineering talent for unrivaled, customized IT infrastructure solutions,” said John Selldorff, president and chief executive officer of Legrand North and Central America. “In addition, the acquisition expands our extensive mission-critical customer footprint and our reach in emerging tech, 5G and the evolving content delivery markets. We look forward to offering customers and partners our new standard solutions.”

Legrand added that for the C1 brands, the acquisition will help them grow sales and channel relationship. C1’s vendor-agnostic transceivers will be introduced to Legrand’s IT industry partners.

“Legrand is a visionary that combines best-of-breed technologies to uniquely engineer world-renowned solutions for mission-critical facilities,” said C1’s chief executive officer Michael Rapp. “We are excited to work closely with their engineering, marketing, and sales teams to broaden our reach in support of today’s evolving data center requirements.”

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath acted as legal advisor to Legrand in the transaction. Zukerman Gore Brandeis & Crossman, LLP acted as legal advisor to Champion ONE. Stifel acted as Champion ONE’s financial advisor.