RRSat Global Communications has acquired London-based content management services company, JCA.
Based in Israel’s Airport City, the content management and content distribution services provider paid $9 million for JCA. An additional payment of $4.5 million will be deferred, conditional on revenue growth and profitability in the next three years.
RRSat had been aggressively seeking to expand its global reach with a local presence in key locations. CEO Avi Cohen joined RRSat 14 months ago and has helped lead RRSat’s global expansion efforts. The company felt it was important to have locations that could provide services to local customers, especially in the areas of media preparation and media management. Last November, the company acquired US-based, SM2 Sports & Media.
CEO Cohen said, “We always wanted to have a centre in London, which is one of the largest centres in the world for media and broadcasting. We thought it was important in our intent to become more global. This acquisition will increase the scope of our offering, because JCA is bringing to the party services that we don’t have. We believe in a very short time we’ll be able to make one and one equal more than two – and we’re really looking forward to that.”
JCA had been associated with RRSat doing work for NBC children’s entertainment brand KidsCo, with JCA doing KidsCo content management and RRSat doing playout. The two companies had entertained the idea of entering into a strategic partnership for some time before RRSat decided to make an outright acquisition.
JCA managing director Simon Kay sees the acquisition as a mutually beneficial arrangement: “The two services are totally complementary. There’s really nothing that RRSat does that JCA does and vice-versa. From our perspective, this acquisition provides us with a global presence, which is important to us because many of our clients have seen us as a UK company, as opposed to a global company. It creates a more rounded, one-stop-shop solution for both RRSat and JCA clients.”
