National CineMedia has agreed to buy Captivate Holdings, a leading operator of digital video elevator and lobby advertising in North America, from PE firm Generation Partners for $275 million.
Combining NCM’s cinema advertising with Captivate’s footprint will make it a major player in premium video and digital out-of-home advertising with more than 48,000 screens across theaters, office buildings and residential properties in 185 DMAs, including all of the top 100.
“This acquisition marks an important milestone in NCM’s evolution and represents a key next step in our strategy to build a market-defining premium video and digital out-of-home advertising platform,” said CEO Tom Lesinski.
He called Captivate “an excellent platform that strategically complements and expands our core expertise in connecting advertisers with highly sought-after audiences in premium, high-attention video-enabled environments.”
Captivate operates 26,000-plus digital video screens across more than 11,000 office and residential buildings in the U.S. and Canada.
The combination create a larger pool of premium digital out-of-home national, local and programmatic inventory across cinema, office and residential buildings and will enhance NCM’s data, targeting and measurement capabilities.
Publicly traded National CineMedia also reported second quarter earnings Tuesday afternoon. Net losses narrowed to $9.9 million from $10.7 million on revenue up 13% at $58.4 million. The stock is down 16% in late trading at $3.20.
