Imagine Communications CEO Tom Cotney has announced the company is splitting into two business units due to “too many vendors chasing too few dollars.”
Imagine is splitting its advertising technology business into a separate unit, Imagine Ad Tech, which will be run by Sarah Foss, who previously was chief product officer of Imagine Advertising Solutions.
The rest of Imagine will become Imagine Playout and Networking Solutions, to be run by Steve Reynolds, who previously was Imagine CTO.
Cotney, speaking at Imagine’s NAB press conference, said the advertising technology and video delivery businesses need different sets of partners for future success, which was why the decision to separate them has been taken.
“We do video [delivery] very, very well and we do [advertising] optimisation very well,” said Cotney. “But just making those products and giving them to our customers is not enough.”
Cotney said that the ad-tech business will be Imagine’s “primary investment target” in 2018.
