ABERDEEN, N.C. — Meridian Kiosks LLC, a manufacturer of kiosks to the North American Market, announced that it acquired the assets of KING Products and Solutions, Inc (KPSI), of Toronto Canada. KPSI is the one of the oldest kiosk manufacturers in the world, initially providing signage solutions since 1944. KPSI was one of the first manufacturers of interactive kiosks and won a prestigious MAC user award in 1995 for the innovative MIKO (Mac In KING Out) kiosk. In more recent times, KPSI was a leading manufacturer of Internet and telephony kiosks for airports, wayfinding kiosks for commercial properties, and retail solutions for major retail customers.

"In today's economic environment, we're seeing very good opportunities for consolidating our industry," said Chris Gilder, Meridian's chief executive. "Most companies are retrenching. Our approach is just the opposite — we see the downturn as an opportunity to gain market share at very reasonable valuations. When we had an opportunity to acquire one of the pioneers of our industry, we moved very quickly to make it happen. Acquiring KPSI not only expands Meridian's product and segment offering, but also adds critical proprietary software solutions applicable to all of Meridian's existing clients."

"We take a very structured approach to our business decisions," said Gerhard Renner, Meridian's chief financial officer. "Our business focus and prudence has allowed Meridian to grow without any outside financing, enabling us to be very flexible, and able to react quickly to take advantage of market opportunities. The acquisition of KING reflects this approach, and will be accretive to our free cash flow almost immediately."

In conjunction with the acquisition, Meridian also announced the expansion of its sales team, led by vice president of sales and marketing Robert Giblett. "Robert is an industry veteran and has played a significant role in increasing sales at each of his employers including a three-year tenure at KING and most recently at Netkey," said Gilder. "He knows how to build and motivate sales teams and has a proven track record of executing. We're thrilled to have him as part of the team."

Giblett will be joined by director of outside sales Brian Chamberlain, formerly of KPSI; inside sales associate Tony Temple, joining the North Carolina office as part of the business development team; and Randy Haines, director of customer service responsible for service and support, bringing over 14 years experience from KPSI.

"Our stated goal is to make the leap and double in size this year — and we are seeing terrific opportunities to do so, and are on track to make this happen," said Giblett. "Increasing our sales staff allows us to more effectively respond to the needs of our customers and the ever-increasing flow of opportunities created through our strong partnerships. We have the engineering and manufacturing piece down to a science — it was time for our sales team to catch up."

Meridian will continue to operate offices in Toronto for its software and customer service divisions, while centralizing its manufacturing operations to its 65,000-square-foot facility in North Carolina. The software division will be led by the original KPSI team, which will remain largely intact and led by Paul Burden (director of software development) and Luis Gonzalez (KINGnet team leader), combining over 20 years of self-service software development with KPSI. Terms of the transaction remain confidential.