Captivate Network Acquires Office Media Network

Captivate Network, the leading digital media company reaching on-the-go business professionals throughout their workday, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Office Media Network (OMN). Terms of the cash and stock acquisition were not disclosed.

The strategic consolidation creates North America’s largest in-office media network and leverages the strengths of each company's distribution, technology, media solutions and editorial content, resulting in a stronger network and better solutions for Captivate's advertising and commercial real estate business partners. The resulting merged network will encompass more than 12,000 screens installed in more than 1,800 premier office buildings across North America’s top urban markets.

Office Media Network, which featured The Wall Street Journal Office Network, was founded in 2006 and offered world-class content on digital signage screens in more than 750 premier office buildings across 15 top U.S. markets.

"This strategic consolidation is a big win for our advertising and commercial real estate partners," said Marc Kidd, Captivate's chief executive officer. "For the real estate community, we can provide more value through easier customization of solutions to meet the unique needs of each partner, and a more streamlined approach to developing innovations that reinforce Captivate’s value as a class A building amenity and eco-friendly tenant communication solution.”

Added Mark Shapiro, Captivate’s chairman of the board, “The acquisition of OMN not only reinforces Captivate’s leadership position in providing in-office media solutions, but also illustrates the efficiencies and growth that this type of strategic consolidation can bring to the digital place-based media sector. It bodes well not just for the future of Captivate, but also for our entire industry.”

Todd Newville, who oversees Captivate's real estate building partnerships as senior vice president, technology & operations, said, "The OMN lobby screen service will expand on our proven in-elevator solution to allow buildings to reach tenants in public areas outside of the elevator cabs."

Tim Callahan, president & chief executive officer, Callahan Capital Properties, said, "I have enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial relationship with both Captivate and OMN, and can see how the combined entities will be able to offer a robust solution under a single roof. Combining these two quality companies can only be a positive development for the commercial real estate industry and its tenants."

For the advertising community, Kidd said, "This consolidation greatly enhances our ability to connect brands with a highly valuable, hard to reach, Nielsen-measured audience via creative and research-proven solutions that deliver results. Advertisers and agencies will now have a single point of contact to develop ad programs that capitalize on the best of each network’s capabilities and solutions."

Kidd said the combination of Captivate and OMN will deliver a significantly larger network and audience, with the network's number of buildings growing by more than 70% and unique monthly reach increasing by nearly 60% over Captivate’s already industry-leading footprint. The "new" Captivate Network will deliver more than 65 million Nielsen-measured A18+ ad impressions each month.

David Krupp, chief executive officer of Kinetic U.S., added, "The advertising industry has been looking for this type of consolidation for some time. Having one strong player in the office screens environment will be good for everyone involved. For us, it will make it easier to incorporate in-office screens into our video planning."

For the short-term, both networks will continue to operate separately while working to fully integrate OMN’s technology, operations and staff into Captivate Network. Kidd said the integration process should be completed before the end of 2014, although advertisers immediately will be able to place buys across both networks through the Captivate sales team.

Captivate has signed an interim license agreement with Dow Jones to allow for the uninterrupted use of Wall Street Journal editorial content on existing OMN screens.

Jim Harris, founder and CEO of OMN, will join Captivate's Advisory Board to help facilitate the integration, and will work closely with Captivate's senior leadership team on network development and new business opportunities. Many other members of OMN's staff also will join Captivate.

Captivate Network, founded in 1997, built a network of more than 10,000 elevator displays located in more than 1,000 premier office buildings in the U.S. and Canada. The company is owned by Generation Partners and Gannett Co.

About Captivate Network

Known for its vast network of more than 10,000 elevator displays located in over 1,000 premier office buildings across North America, Captivate Network connects advertisers with over 5.6 million monthly viewers through creative, research-driven and Nielsen-measured advertising and marketing programs. By engaging its viewers with timely news and actionable information that helps balance the personal and professional demands of the workday, Captivate provides advertisers with a highly desirable and difficult-to-reach audience of affluent and influential business professionals. Founded in 1997, Captivate is owned by Generation Partners and Gannett. For more information, please visit www.captivate.com.

About Generation Partners

Generation Partners is a private equity firm with over $350 million of capital under management. Generation provides equity capital to growth companies and pursues both majority and minority investments. Over the past 25 years, the firm’s principals have invested in more than 50 companies in three primary industry groups: Media & Communications; Healthcare Services & Software; and Business & Information Services. Generation focuses on recurring revenue service businesses with strong growth drivers and specializes in helping entrepreneurs install best practices and build exceptional management teams to accelerate growth and to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. The firm provides long-term capital and drives returns primarily from core business growth rather than from financial leverage. Current and prior portfolio companies include the following: Agility Recovery Solutions, American Cellular, Demand Media, Donuts, iCrossing, MedVance Institute, Muzak, New Wave Communications, Post Education, ReCept Pharmacy, Sterling Infosystems, thePlatform and Virtual Radiologic. Generation has offices in Greenwich, CT, Los Angeles, CA, and Austin, TX. For more information on Generation Partners, please visit www.generation.com.

About Gannett

Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is an international media and marketing solutions company that informs and engages more than 100 million people every month through its powerful network of broadcast, digital, mobile and publishing properties. Its portfolio of trusted brands offers marketers unmatched local-to-national reach and customizable, innovative marketing solutions across any platform. Gannett is committed to connecting people – and the companies who want to reach them – with their interests and communities. For more information, visit www.gannett.com.