Well, we're barely starting the new year and already we have the first signs of all this industry-wide consolidation that we've been hearing about. Bizjournals tells us that satellite provider Hughes has decided to buy Helius for $10.5M in cash, with the prospect of another $20M if the company meets various performance goals in the future.
Hughes and Helius have been close from the start, so I'm not too surprised by this notice. The real question in my mind is what this will do to the relationship between Hughes and various other digital signage software providers that have "partnered" with Hughes to provide multicast satellite support? I'd be pretty pissed if I had selected them as a premier partner (or whatever) and suddenly found myself competing against them. In fact, we've won a number of deals in the past for exactly that reason (though with different companies).
The deal is expected to close some time this quarter.
Tags: digital signage, Hughes, Helius
Hughes and Helius have been close from the start, so I'm not too surprised by this notice. The real question in my mind is what this will do to the relationship between Hughes and various other digital signage software providers that have "partnered" with Hughes to provide multicast satellite support? I'd be pretty pissed if I had selected them as a premier partner (or whatever) and suddenly found myself competing against them. In fact, we've won a number of deals in the past for exactly that reason (though with different companies).
The deal is expected to close some time this quarter.
Tags: digital signage, Hughes, Helius
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