New Employee Stock Ownership Program Strengthens Company Charter
WESTFORD, Mass. -- Oct. 13, 2014 -- Artel Video Systems, a leading global provider of broadcast-quality media transport solutions, announced today that effective Oct. 1, 2014, the company is now employee owned through the creation of the Artel Video Systems Corporation Employee Ownership Trust. The Trust, formed as an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), strengthens Artel's ability to deliver on their charter and better meet the growing needs of its customers.
"Since I became president of Artel, it has been clear that the company's strength is its unique combination of talented, experienced, and dedicated employees. Also, it is well documented that broad-based employee ownership enhances a company's financial performance while dramatically improving all of its customer satisfaction metrics," said Richard Dellacanonica, president and CEO. "Delivering the world's most reliable, simple to install and support media transport equipment has been our charter for more than 30 years and we have been successful at it because of our employees. Through this employee ownership program, we are further enhancing the culture of customer-focused solutions, coupled with a dedication to service and quality that have been the hallmarks of Artel for decades. We also expect this to drive more active participation in all aspects of the business creating a true win-win, with both the employees and our customers reaping the benefits from the employee ownership of Artel."
Over the last 40 years, ESOPs have been an effective tool used by large and mid-sized public and private companies to provide employee loyalty and dedication to their organization. Created under the rules and guidelines of the U.S. Government Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), currently, there are over 9,000 active ESOPs in the U.S.
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About Artel Video Systems (www.artel.com)
Artel Video Systems is a leading global provider of broadcast-quality media transport solutions for IP, direct fiber, and managed optical networks. A pioneer in the industry, Artel developed the first commercially available video-over-fiber video transport platform. In recent years Artel has provided solutions based on the DigiLink media platform, providing the most reliable and easiest to configure and support solutions. With thousands of deployments, DigiLink is relied upon everyday by the world's largest broadcasters, telecommunication companies, and CATV operators for mission critical video and data feeds to support the world's most watched sports, news, and entertainment events. Recently, the company was honored with a Technology and Engineering Emmy(R) Award by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) for its work on the Standardization and Productization of JPEG 2000 (J2K) Interoperability.
