Barco has announced the extension of its digital cinema product offering through the acquisition of the CineStore activities of cinema solutions provider XDC. The acquisition is said to fit within Barco’s broader strategy to move up in the value chain from digital projection supplier to provider of total cinema visualisation solutions.
Barco says that XDC’s CineStore team, based in Liege, Belgium, will bring profound software know-how and in-depth market knowledge of the digital cinema business. XDC has more than ten years of experience in graphical user interface design and theatre management systems for the digital cinema industry.
Last year, Barco also acquired the digital signage expertise of dZine. With the addition of CineStore, the company believes it can now offer its customers an integrated theatre management system, spanning both the theatre and the lobby, while at the same time strengthening its software capabilities. Moreover, the acquisition will enable Barco to also deliver solutions for content play out.
“CineStore’s activities are a strong, value-added complement to our existing digital cinema offering. Adding CineStore’s skills and experience to our business will allow us to further strengthen our market position, while maintaining our key strong points of interoperability and highest image quality,” said Wim Buyens, VP, Barco Digital Cinema (pictured). “We stand by our strategy not to be a VPF integrator. Instead, we will remain focused on supplying visualisation technologies and products for the professional digital cinema community.”
“Barco and XDC share a long history of collaboration in digital cinema,” said XDC Group CEO, Serge Plasch. “Our decision to sell the CineStore activities was prompted by our strategy to focus on service to exhibitors while becoming the leading European cinema integrator. XDC will also increase its activities in integrated cinema software solutions, network and content delivery services. Within this strategic framework, CineStore capabilities are no longer considered core business”.
The acquisition of CineStore activities will be closed by the end of Q1 2011.
