JERUSALEM and LONDON--SintecMedia, an Israeli-based provider of broadcast financial and traffic management technology, is acquiring Pilat Media, a U.K.-based developer of business management software for media companies, in a stock deal worth approximately GBP63.3 million, (US$103 million). The transaction is expected to take several weeks for shareholder and regulatory approvals, according to a statement on SintecMedia’s website. SintecMedia originally attempted to take ownership of Pilat in 2009, according to Devoncroft.
The two companies extolled the benefits of the integration, with SintecMedia CEO Amotz Yarden saying that the acquisition will “provide the employees and clients of Pilat with an opportunity to benefit from the combined scale and technological strength of the Enlarged Group, which will be well placed to meet the challenges faced by the industry in the years to come.”
SintecMedia said that any “product convergence initiatives” in the newly combined company “will be evolutionary, with an emphasis on backward compatibility.” Pilat will exhibit as part of the enlarged SintecMedia group at the NAB Show in April.
SintecMedia’s enterprise-level broadcast business management systems are used by customers worldwide including NBC-Universal, CBC, Televisa, BBC, and Australia’s ABC. Pilat, whose flagship product is IBMS (Integrated Business Management System), counts CBS and Thailand’s BBTV among its customers. At IBC, the companylaunched a suite of cloud-based management software for smaller networks, stations and pay-TV operators.
SintecMedia, on its website said that the transaction is designed to help both companies “gradually integrate certain functions where appropriate to realise synergy and economies of scale,” but added that it is “unlikely to affect the vast majority of positions and staff across the two companies.” Pilat Executive Directors Avi Engel and Martin Blair will resign, with Engel taking on a consultancy role with SintecMedia.
More information on the acquisition is available here.
