Indianapolis-based RCA firm acquired by Arizona conglomerate

Indianapolis-based RCA Commercial Electronics and its operating entity, DTI Services, have been acquired by Phoenix-based Alpine 4 Holdings Inc.

The sale closed on Monday and included a cash payment of $14 million to DTI’s owners, Kirby Goedde and Andrew Spence, according to a document that Alpine 4 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Goedde, who owned 90% of DTI, received $12.6 million and Spence, who owned the other 10% of the company, received $1.4 million, the filing said.

Alpine also issued promissory notes of $1.8 million to Goedde and $200,000 to Spence.

Goedde and Spence also received $4 million shares of Alpine 4 stock between them, as well as time-restricted warrants to purchase $1 million in additional shares of Alpine 4 stock.

Also as part of the agreement, RCA Commercial Electronics President Jeff Kingston will continue to serve in that role at the company. Goedde will serve as senior vice president of technology and Spence will serve as senior vice president of sales. All three will report to Alpine 4’s CEO, Kent Wilson, and to Alpine 4’s chief operating officer.

RCA Commercial Electronics, founded in 2009, sells commercial televisions for the hospitality and health care markets. It also sells commercial LED lighting, using the same technology that illuminates the RCA TV screens. The company uses the iconic RCA name under a licensing agreement with Technicolor, the French company formerly known as Thomson that owns the brand.

In 2019, RCA Commercial Electronics acquired the lighting and lighting controls business of LG Electronics USA, making RCA one of the nation’s largest suppliers of commercial lighting.

In operating under the RCA name, the modern company carries on a legacy that dates back more than a century.

The RCA Corp., originally known as the Radio Corporation of America, was founded in 1919 and headquartered in New York City. It was a pioneer of the radio and TV industries and created the first nationwide American radio network, the National Broadcasting Company, which later became the NBC Television Network.

RCA’s consumer electronics division was acquired by the company then known as Thomson Consumer Electronics in 1987. Thomson, which is now known as Technicolor, had its Americas headquarters first in Indianapolis, later moving to Carmel. The Carmel site closed in 2017. In its heyday, RCA employed thousands of Hoosiers at facilities in Indianapolis, Bloomington and Marion. All of those factories have since closed.

General Electric purchased RCA in 1986, and Technicolor acquired the RCA brand in 2004.

“I, and by extension Alpine 4, are unabashedly proud of being a collector of American companies, and the RCA name is the purest expression of what we call ‘Americana,’” Wilson said in a prepared statement. “The radio of the 1920s and 30s and then the TV of the 1940s and beyond are the equivalent to the internet and the smart phone of today.”

Wilson said Alpine 4 will continue to use the RCA name, and Alpine 4 has several RCA-branded products that it plans to introduce next year.

Kingston said in a prepared statement that RCA is “poised for expansive growth.”

“It’s a pivotal time to join Alpine 4 and we look forward to the combined collaborative creativity being put into action through innovative products and projects,” Kingston said.

Alpine 4 is a publicly-traded holding company that acquires and operates middle-market technology-driven businesses with between $5 million and $150 million in annual revenues.  Its operating subsidiaries include other Indiana-based companies. Morris Sheet Metal has operations in Fort Wayne and South Bend. JTD Spiral, a sister company to Morris Sheet Metal, also operates in Fort Wayne.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the history of RCA.