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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Peripheral Firms Enter Into Pact To Refer Clients

Peripheral Firms Enter Into Pact To Refer Clients By SLAV KANDYBA Staff Reporter Three Valley companies, each targeting different sectors of the computer peripheral industry, have joined forces. Chatsworth-based One Stop Shop Inc. has initiated a partnership with On-Site LaserMedic, also of Chatsworth and Faye, Pollack and Associates of Encino. One Stop specializes in telephone sales of toners across the nation and overseas. On-Site specializes in maintenance, while Faye, Pollack and Associates is an information technology firm. The companies will share client databases and will split profits, while functioning as individual businesses, their respective owners said. The annual sales generated by the three companies combined exceeded $14 million last year, said Marx Acosta-Rubio, owner and president of One Stop Shop Inc. and the driver behind the partnership efforts. Acosta-Rubio said that after his attempts to buy the 12-year-old LaserMedic didn’t go through, he negotiated a partnership with LaserMedic co-owner Gail Solomon to go into business together. The companies are entrusting each other with their respective clients. “We’re not going to spend the legal fees on these contracts,” Acosta-Rubio said. “We’d rather just trust each other.” Jim Forrest, a senior analyst at New Hampshire-based Lyra Research, an organization that covers the computer peripheral industry, attributes the partnerships to personal contact. While regional maintenance companies have it, telemarketers don’t, he said. Tricia Judge, the executive director at the International Imaging Technology Council in Las Vegas, said she hasn’t heard of such a business strategy in the industry before, but that it makes sense given the industry’s growth, she said. Businesses are trying to survive, she added. Judge said that although the businesses are collaborating, there does not appear to be any anti-trust concerns because the companies are integrating horizontally, not vertically. Solomon, who co-owns LaserMedic with Ellen Dee, said although she competes with Acosta-Rubio’s One Stop, the partnership is advantageous to both parties. “We’re competitors only in the toner end, but on the service side he doesn’t do service, we do,” Solomon said. Faye, Pollack and Associates, with which Acosta-Rubio said he closed the partnership about two weeks ago, forms IT relationships with companies “assuming complete responsibility for their computers,” according to the company’s Web site. It was founded in 1991, and has a staff of more than 20 people. CORRECTION (March 1): In the article above, Marx Acosta-Rubio, the owner and president of One Stop Shop Inc., is incorrectly identified as having negotiated a partnership with On-Site LaserMedic after approaching the company to purchase it. The two companies entered into the partnership after another firm approached by One Stop Shop declined to be purchased.

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