Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
We learnt Friday afternoon some of the details of Boston-based JMC Capital Partners’ purchase of Vertigo Digital Displays, Toronto, which we announced last Wednesday – a formal press announcement on the buy will be made next Tuesday so as usual we are first with the news that matters, Ed.
The purchase is believed to make Civiq Smartscapes, owned by JMC Capital, one of the world’s largest developers and manufacturers of digital out-of-home structures and smart city kiosks.
Civiq Smartscapes now gets Vertigo’s engineering, designers, program managers, intellectual property, test labs and a good sized manufacturing space that was underutilized since Vertigo moved into its new quarters about 18 months ago.
Civiq Smartscapes is expected to move some of its development and manufacturing needs to Toronto immediately. The low value of the Canadian dollar would make manufacturing in Canada interesting for Civiq Smartscapes which, along with providing the 10,000 units for LinkNYC, has allegedly been getting the attention of others interested in Smart Cities.
We understand that the Vertigo brand name will remain, with products noted as Vertigo by Civiq Smartscapes.
JMC Capital has acquired 100% of Vertigo that had been held by majority shareholder Amadeo Tarzia and a minority shareholder. No dollar figures were mentioned.
Our readers might remember that Civiq Smartscapes also bought Elevate Digital, developer of street-level, interactive software technology for smart cities, back in February of this year.
Civiq Smartscapes is headed by Erwin Razelman, president, who joined the company in March. Ralph Idems, former COO, and Chris Bolton, former CTO, co-founders of Vertigo, remain with the company, Idems heading DOOH business development and reporting to Brad Gleeson, chief commercial officer at Civiq Smartscapes and Bolton heading the product design group, reporting to Razelman. Bruno Pupo, Vertigo’s former vice-president sales, will work with Idems on the local business development team. Their actual new titles have not been announced.
Vertigo has a staff of about 24.
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