Telamon buys ITAD consultancy Retire-IT to build a governance layer
What's the deal? TelamonDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → Corporation has acquired Retire-ITDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the Columbus, Ohio-based IT asset disposition (ITAD) consultancy that Kyle Marks built over 21 years. Terms were not disclosed. Marks will stay on as vice president of ITAD services within Telamon's enterprise services division.
What is Telamon buying? Not a recycler. Retire-IT does not recycle, remarket, or physically handle retired equipment; it manages ITAD programs for corporate and institutional clients while independently overseeing the roughly three dozen certified processors that do the work.
Why it matters: The distinction is the point. Marks calls the underlying philosophy "defensible IT disposition" — the idea that an organization should be able to demonstrate, through documentation and independent verification, what happened to a retired asset.
"We don't compete with anybody," Marks said. "We manage the process, and Retire-IT has always been a fiduciary, sitting on the same side of the table, representing our clients."
Why now? The deal follows a 2025 hire: Telamon brought on Mark Vander Kooy as VP of ITAD and Enterprise Solutions. Vander Kooy founded Asset Forwarding, an ITAD company later acquired and folded into what became CloudBlue. The sequence reads as Telamon using an experienced operator to evaluate a target — though neither company has stated that as strategy.
Who's the buyer? Founded in 1985 by Albert Chen, the family-owned Carmel, Indiana company builds around telecommunications network deployment, industrial kitting, wire harness assembly, and a broader enterprise services division, plus newer ventures in energy and robotics. Marks put Telamon's customer base at roughly 18,000.
Revenue figures vary. CEO Stan Chen told employees at a 2024 town hall the company closed that year above $1.1 billion; Marks cited roughly $1.5 billion. Third-party data providers, using estimates, put revenue in the high $600 millions to high $700 millions as of early 2026. Telamon is privately held and does not publish audited financials.
What changes? Marks framed Telamon's ITAD interest as an extension of existing work in data center decommissioning, installation, and connectivity — not an entry into recycling or remarketing. Marks said Retire-IT had never taken outside acquisition offers and specifically avoided becoming a processor itself, despite recurring interest from private equity firms building ITAD roll-ups.
The signal: As enterprises face mounting scrutiny over data security and e-waste chains, the deal bets that the valuable layer in ITAD is not the shredding but the oversight. Telamon is buying trust and documentation, not a facility.
Read more: Carolina Recycling Association
