France-based software provider WinMedia Group is acquiring OMT Technologies in Canada, and will also merge its own small North American operations into that of OMT.
The two suppliers announced the private transaction and called it a merger of North American businesses. “We bring North America to the party, and they bring new products to our party,” OMT President/CEO Bill Baines said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Both offer media asset management products to the marketplace that include automation/playout and logging products — OMT sells under the iMediaTouch brand name, which will remain in use — but Baines said that there is little overlap between markets, with OMT focused on North America and WinMedia a strong international brand. The companies will sell under the name of whichever brand is strongest in a given market.
Baines said no reduction of staff is planned. He will remain through the transition, when he’ll depart. The rest of the OMT management team remains in place.
The press release indicated that the companies plan new products soon and will attend the 2017 NAB Show though they will not collocate booths because show contracts were signed some months ago. Baines speculated that the WinMedia booth may move to the TV hall in 2018.
WinMedia is owned by a small group of shareholders; Stéphane Tésorière is president. It launched with the first version of WinRadio and WinLogger softwares, written by developers Philippe Castell and Stephane Giacone; it began with radio and expanded into TV. The company began selling outside of France in 2003, according to its website, which also makes an undated reference to other plans for international expansion. Francois Beaumier is president and CEO of WinMedia Canada.
OMT’s automation roots go back to the 1980s and the earliest days of PC-based automation (read an OMT timeline) though OMT Technologies itself was founded in the 1990s by Ron Paley and later was publicly traded in Canada. OMT more recently was owned by Emprise Capital, its sole shareholder since 2011.
