Swedish Vertiseit group has acquired digital signage specialist Scala. Until recently, Scala was part of US retail media group Stratacache. Its British subsidiaries, Stratacache UK and PRN UK, have been in insolvency and liquidation proceedings since the beginning of May. Furthermore, there are clear signs of widespread financial difficulties within the Stratacache Group. The Retail Optimiser reported.
For Scala and its customers, this means they will no longer be affected by potential consequences of the US group’s crisis. The group is receiving around 265 million Swedish Kronor (24.5 million Euros) for the transaction. Vertiseit is financing the purchase through a combination of an expanded credit facility with Nordea Bank and proceeds from a directed share issue.
With this acquisition, Vertiseit aims to strengthen its global position in the digital signage and in-store experience management (IXM) segments and significantly expand its international partner network. The group expects to generate additional annual recurring revenue of around 85 million Swedish Kronor (just under 8 million Euros). Furthermore, Scala is expected to make a positive contribution to the group’s profitability. Based on anticipated synergy effects, this is expected to align with the group’s long-term EBITDA target of 35 per cent.
Scala becomes part of Dise
Vertiseit was founded in 2008 and has been listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange since 2019. The company sees itself as a leading European platform for digital in-store solutions. Through its subsidiaries Visual Art, Grassfish and Dise, the company offers SaaS solutions for in-store experience management as well as consultancy services. Its clients are international brands and retailers that use digital touchpoints in their stores to combine analogue and digital customer experiences. In the retail sector, Marks & Spencer and Spar Switzerland are among its customers.
Once the acquisition is complete, Scala will continue as the strategic software offering within Vertiseit subsidiary Dise and is set to expand its global partner network. Dise CEO Sebastian Kryh explains: “Scala has played an important role in shaping the Digital Signage industry over several decades. Dise intends to accelerate Scala’s transition toward a modern SaaS-based and device-agnostic offering, fully aligned with a partner-first go-to-market strategy.”
