GSBC to acquire Wallflower

Well, after my last post blasting GSBC's press release things have started to become a bit more interesting over on the other side of the world. Apparently the company is going to acquire Wallflower Digital, the makers of a different suite of digital signage applications, with the intent of using the firm's existing technology and software development resources to further its goals of dominating the Eastern hemisphere.

I have to admit that aside from buying Wallflower's customer base and influence in the Australia/New Zealand market, I don't quite understand the synergies that GSBC hopes to achieve via this acquisition. Normally, if you need a technology, you buy ONE company that has it, not two. Granted, I haven't looked at either m-cast or Wallflower's offering in any detail in quite a while (well, ever for Wallflower), but I can't imagine that they're that different just based on how they're positioned.

Perhaps GSBC is just looking for a way to jumpstart their sales operations, and are using Wallflower as a running start. The press release notes:

Wallflower will be announcing a roll out of kiosks for one of the world’s larges sporting goods companies.

Tony Scott said, “It’s a terrific opportunity for Wallflower to accelerate its international roll out with GSBC and the SmartScreen technology. It’s a great fit."

Scott continued “We bring to GSBC extensive experience in all aspects of Dynamic Digital Signage software. Our R&D team will provide GSBC additional depth and pioneering areas of DDS such as Advanced Analytics, Facial Recognition Analytics and new methods of media deployment."

Still, for a company to make two significant purchases (Wallflower, a 4 year-old Aussie company, sold for $20M) within the span of a week is quite unusual. And of course it's still possible that it's more of a ploy to boost speculation about stock prices in the weeks before GSBC goes public on the NASDAQ OTCBB.

Tags: Wallflower, m-cast, GSBC, digital signage