Mobile Defenders Acquired by Industry Leader in Mobile Device Replacement Parts Wholesale

TWP DUCTS. — Joining forces with its biggest competitor will give Mobile Defenders LLC an opportunity to be part of the dominant player in the wholesale market for mobile device spare parts with increased economies of scale.

Mobile Defenders co-founder, president and CEO Jordan Notenbaum contacted Chantilly, Va.-based rival MobileSentrix in February to see if the company was interested in a potential acquisition.

“We had spoken to our owners group and were looking for a change,” Notenbaum said. MyBiz. “(MobileSentrix) is such a strong competitor in terms of price and economies of scale. I got on a plane, met them and said, ‘Hey, let’s make a deal.’

The two companies announced this week that they have completed a transaction in which industry leader MobileSentrix has acquired Mobile Defenders, the industry’s second-largest wholesale parts distributor. The terms of the contract are not disclosed.

MobileSentrix will retain all 45 Mobile Defenders employees, including Notenbaum, who will remain president of the company.

Both companies will operate independently and maintain their respective websites and identities.

Notenbaum said the two operations offer complementary products, with Mobile Defenders focusing on developing relationships with major OEMs and MobileSentrix working directly with vendors to offer highly competitive pricing. Combining the two companies will give them greater leverage to help bring down prices for the industry, he added.

“We needed something to give back to our customers,” Notenbaum said. “It’s hard to compete with them on price because we don’t have economies of scale. Now let’s stay competitive and do something that changes the industry.

The deal also provided liquidity to two of Mobile Defenders’ investors, which included an unspecified Fortune 300 company and a family office, he said.

Additionally, the sale did not include Mobile Defenders’ EduParts business, which has 20 employees and serves the K-12 education market. EduParts focuses on a different industry and niche market than the global business-to-business sector served by Mobile Defenders, which had been considering splitting the business for some time, Notenbaum said.

According to a report by market research firm IbisWorld, the cellphone repair industry operates in a $4 billion market in the United States alone from 2022, with expectations of annual growth of about 1%. Nearly 9,300 companies repair cell phones in the United States, which is the market both companies serve.

Although the companies intend to keep their separate brands and websites in the short term, they expect to start leveraging each other’s strengths in the future, with Mobile Defenders bringing in valuable OEM relationships with companies. like Apple, Samsung, Google, Motorola, LG, Dell. , HP and others at the table for MobileSentrix. Additionally, Mobile Defenders primarily works with enterprise customers, while MobileSentrix focuses on servicing the independent repair store network.

“Mobile Defenders has captive relationships with OEMs, and MobileSentrix has had no relationships with any of them,” Notenbaum said. “The end goal is to integrate and sell OEM parts through Mobile Defenders and MobileSentrix. We also focus on, ‘Can we offer all OEM parts to all customers without having to deal with paperwork and requirements?’ It’s really about being the voice of the customer.