Launching a start-up in 2001 and growing it through the downturn into a market leader in the North American DC power equipment market as Valere Power did must have shown something to Norway’s Eltek ASA. When its subsidiary, Eltek Energy, acquired Valere last week, co-founder and CEO Andy Marsh and CFO Ken Vines were put in charge.

“Eltek has been an extremely successful company in this space. And now we have been able to put together one of the strongest management teams in the industry,” Marsh said, speaking from Norway after two days of integration meetings. “I am impressed with the local talent of both companies.”

The acquisition of Valere Power by Eltek Energy creates a $500 million company with global market penetration. It will become the second largest DC power systems provider in the world. Known as Eltek Valere, the new company will be headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The company will have more than 1300 employees with sales in 100 countries and operations in 25 countries. All three Valere co-founders will continue with the new company. The other two founders are Greg Fasullo and Vito Savino.

Valere generated $88 million in revenue last year and has averaged 77% annual sales growth since 2004. Revenue for the first quarter of 2007 was up 44% over last year’s first quarter. Eltek is also in growth mode. Established in 1971, the company has sustained a 26% revenue growth rate since 2004. By acquiring Valere, Eltek more than doubles its revenues in the U.S. market and strengthens its position in the Indian market.

“Even during the downturn, both companies were committed to R&D, committed to delivering superior products and to expanding globally. What you have seen is that the investments both our companies’ shareholders made in that future has paid off with rapid growth rates,” Marsh said.

Valere made its mark developing small systems that reduced power dissipation and took advantage of networking capabilities to provide a higher level of remote monitoring and management.

“When Lucent sold its power business the market we saw the industry was devoid of a market leader,” Marsh said. “Those in market were investing very little in R&D. So we put a stake in the ground and said we were going to be smaller, more efficient, dissipate more efficiently, offer remote monitoring and say to carriers we could reduce your opex 30 to 40 %. That’s what we did.”

Marsh said the companies have very little overlap in their customer bases and their respective products are geared toward the specific requirements of their geographic markets, making it a true global player.