International. Broadsign International has reached an agreement to acquire the enterprise solution Ayuda Media Systems. Both companies are headquartered in Montreal. For out-of-home (OOH) media owners who have an increasingly complex mix of classic and digital inventories/locations, the combined power of Broadsign and Help will allow them to streamline business operations across their inventory, digital and classic. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019.
The OOH industry delivered US$38.6 billion in advertising in 2018, and for the first time 50% of revenue came from digital signage locations. As OOH media owners continue to move forward, each needs a more unified solution to manage, sell, and deliver all of their OOH advertising, regardless of format type.
Ayuda was recently recognized by Deloitte Canada as one of the 50 fastest growing companies in Canada, with revenue growth of 647% since 2014. His impressive client list includes AdShel (Australia), Astral (Canada), OUTFRONT Media (Canada), Rouge Media (Canada), Ströer (Germany), VGI Global Media (Thailand), VMO (Australia) and Vyoma (India).
Current Help CEO Luc Filiatreault and all of the talented members of Help's development, operations, sales and services leadership team agreed to join Broadsign.
"Help's robust business operations management, financing and ad delivery system fits perfectly with Broadsign's leading out-of-home digital marketing platform," said Mark Boidman, CEO of PJ Solomon, who acted as Broadsign's financial advisor on this transaction. . "We are tremendously excited about the opportunity the industry has to leverage the combined strength of these two companies."
This news comes after a record year for Broadsign. In 2018, the company evolved from a content management system to a DOOH marketing platform and launched three new products, including its market-leading DOOH programmatic solution, Broadsign Reach.
With the acquisition of Ayuda Media Systems, the company will employ 230 people worldwide and power more than 425,000 signals worldwide, including more than 180,000 digital signals. This transaction represents the first acquisition in Broadsign's 15-year history.
