Boom time in the USA

摘要

2005 has been the time when the big players came to town, with 2,500 site roll-outs, $285m acquisitions, and massive fund-raising going on. For example: 1. PRN Corporation, the owner/operator of the Wal-Mart TV network inside Wal-Mart stores, was acquired for 1285m in cash by Thomson, the French electronics/media company which also owns Screenvision, the largest cinema advertising company in the world and Technicolor. PRN is now in the midst of upgrading of Wal-Mart TV at 2600 locations. 2. Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M), the world's largest producer of technologies and materials for commercial large-format digital printing, acquired Mercury Online Solutions. Mercury produces software for narrowcasting and maintains a network operations center for its customers' narrowcast networks. The acquisition is consistent with 3M's strategy of producing high-profit 'behind-the-scenes' products and services that support mega markets like transport/automotive, safety and security, health care commercial graphics and displays. 3. Kroger, the USA's second largest supermarket chain after Wal-Mart, announced in August that it will roll out an in-store narrowcasting network to all 2000+ of its stores by the end of 2006. The operators of this network will be In-Store Broadcasting, a Salt Lake City-based media company. 4. On Wall Street, about $2oom was raised (with 70 percent of the investment coming from North American investors and 22 percent coming from European investors) for a. China-based screen-media company called Focus Media.