Princeton Video Image, Inc. (NASDAQ: PVII) announced last week the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of SciDel Technologies. Scitex subsidiary SciDel inserts electronic virtual advertisements into live and taped televised sporting events.
PVI said the acquisition "increases its industry depth, as well as its share in the European soccer market." SciDel has extensive experience with European soccer broadcasts and inserts ads virtually for the international broadcasts of the English Premier League, Italian Series A and the Spanish Football league. PVI and SciDel specialize in downstream ad insertion.
SciDel was founded 1995 by Israeli sports marketing professional Kobi Bendel, together with Scitex. The company is headquartered in Tel Aviv. Its products, electronically inserted signage (EIS) and advanced graphic enhancements (AGE), are tools to create new advertising inventory that increases revenues for broadcasters and event organizers.
Other equity holders include Clal Electronics, Star Venture Capital, Gemini Israel Funds, Invision and Infinity (a division of Metro International), and a group of private investors include Ron Lauder. The company closed a $5.5. million fund-raising round in August 2001. In 1998, the company raised $5 million.
PVI said that upon completion of the transaction, it will "take advantage of globalization by decentralizing its research and development center and incorporating SciDel's marketing and sales division into its existing European operations."
PVI is headquartered in New York City and Lawrenceville, New Jersey, with offices in Canada, Brussels and Mexico City, as well as a licensee office in Seoul.