Hal Lieberman, American Vending Sales' Vince Gumma and Dan Lieberman at the Bloomington, Minn., offices.

American Vending Sales, Inc. (AVS) has acquired the distributing arm of the Lieberman Companies in a deal that was finalized yesterday (Jan. 5).

The Lieberman Companies will continue to own and operate its other businesses, which include its large ATM ISO, American Amusement Arcades route and its gaming café locations in Illinois. The distribution business will maintain operations in the Lieberman building in Bloomington, Minn. Industry vets Kurk Johnson and Linda Winstead will head up the sales efforts in vending and amusement respectively for the new AVS branch.

"Things should be business as usual for Lieberman customers. In addition to Kurk and Linda, we are bringing on the technical and parts staff that supported them," said AVS President Vince Gumma. "Our goal is a seamless transition. The companies share a similar philosophy in the way they treat employees and customers and our goal is to maintain the level of service that Lieberman has been known for."

Gumma continued, "We were looking for ways to expand our footprint in distribution and the Lieberman business fits in nicely with ours. They have unique expertise in FEC design and micro markets, areas which we have identified for growth."

"I have known Vince for a long time and when we were looking to divest our distribution arm to focus on the ATM, amusement route and Elsie's gaming café businesses, in my mind he was the ideal buyer," said Lieberman President Hal Lieberman.  Lieberman is a large ATM ISO, owns the American Amusement Arcades (AAA) route, and for the past year and a half, operated gaming café locations in Illinois.

Lieberman was founded by Samuel Lieberman as an amusement route operator in 1907. The company has been in the distribution business since the 1940s and is under the leadership of the fourth generation of Liebermans, Hal and his brother Dan. AVS was founded by Vince's father Frank in 1971.  Between the two companies they have over 150 years' experience in the distribution arena.

Shane Breaks, one of the more colorful personalities during the video boom of the '80s and '90s, passed away in his sleep at his home in France. He was 75.

Breaks was one of the original "Atarians", starting in distribution with R.H. Belam, and then full-time at Atari beginning in 1979. He was on the cover of RePlay in January 1986, discussing Atari's "resurgence" with games such as Gauntlet and Paper Boy, both hits for the now-extinct coin-op brand.

Shane Breaks at center (with Mike Rudowicz and Al Kress) at the ATEI 2008 show in London. At that time, he was presented with the Mary Openshaw Memorial Award for Excellence, from organizers of the Irish trade show, AmEx.