Publishers throughout the world woke up this morning to the announcement that they may have a new print advertising systems supplier.
Atex Group Ltd is selling its Adbase advertising and audience businesses – and operations in Florida, Massachusetts, and Sweden – to Newscycle Solutions, the business formed in July from the merger of DTI and Saxotech.
Atex has a number of major users of its various advertising products in Asia and Australasia. They include News, Fairfax, APN, Shepparton News and Allied Press in ANZ; ABP in India; NSTP, Star, Utusan and Kumpulan Karangkraf in Malaysia; SPH and MediaCorp in Singapore; the Bangkok Post and Nation in Thailand; Brunei’s Brunei Times; and Jin Wan Bao in China. Fairfax, and NSTP are among users of Atex’s audience development product.
The company claims a 220-strong global AdBase customer list. Many of the Asia-Pacific sites use older Cyber/Genera advertising products which are now understood to be remaining with Atex Group Ltd.
Atex says after 15 years investment by its parent Kistefos, the sale will free it to concentrate on growing its digital products, but chief executive Gary Stokes emphasises the company is in “great shape” a year after refinancing and following a strong performance in 2013: “This transaction establishes a robust financial and operational platform to more rapidly develop our core technologies,” he says.
NewsCycle Solutions – which is owned by Vista Private Equity Partners – also announced the appointment of Preston McKenzie (ex MicroEdge, another Vista company, Landmark Media and Thomson Reuters) as its new chief executive, and of former Atex Americas chief executive Scott Roessler as its chief operating officer.
Newscycle says purchase of the Atex advertising business adds financial strength as well as innovative technologies and a prestigious customer base, boosting its user list to more than 500 media companies in more than 30 countries.
McKenzie says he is fortunate to join the company at an “incredible point” in its history. The acquisition of Atex Inc and its AdBase business puts NewsCycle in “an extremely strong position in our industry”, he says.
Beginning his career in the newspaper industry gives him a deep appreciation of the importance of what the company’s do: “NewsCycle is committed to the success of the news media industry and we have resources to be the industry’s most trusted technology partner for the long term.”
Scott Roessler says he has grasped an exciting opportunity to join forces with “the company that has quickly become a leading provider of software for the news media industry.
“NewsCycle clearly has a bold vision and the financial stability to deliver what publishers need – a strategic platform for growing revenue and integrating digital and print across their enterprises.
“Speaking for my Atex colleagues, we are thrilled to be part of the company that can turn that vision into reality.”
But what Stokes describes as “a true win-win” for the two vendor companies creates potential product conflicts within NewsCycle and a change of vendor for Adbase customers. It is not clear whether the new company plans to run support and development of the products side-by-side.
Prior to the acquisition, NewsCycle’s product portfolio – announced in a product and support strategy in September – comprised Digital (based on Saxotech Online), Content (ex Saxotech Mediaware Center), Circulation and Advertising (based on the DTI products), and Audience (based on Saxotech Connect).
In the USA, the remaining vendors are understood to see a fall in the number of competitors. DTI had scored successes with its circulation product with major users in the US and Europe, and in August NewsCycle announced ‘go-lives’ of nine DTI and four Saxotech circulation implementations this year, many of them cloud-based. In Australia, News, Fairfax and West Australian Newspapers are DTI circulation users.
NewsCycle president Dan Paulus (ex DTI) says the new company is “working aggressively” to ensure the new business will have the scale and stability to support its customers’ technology needs “for years to come”.
“We welcome the leadership of Preston McKenzie as our new chief executive, and our new colleagues from Atex as we focus on meeting our customers’ high expectations for quality and innovation.”