TELentice In Trouble
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
It looks like the industry may be about to lose one of its biggest software vendors to date, namely TELentice who, due mainly to their global deal with CBS Outdoor and the work put in over the years to meet the client’s OOH needs, were number 7 in our Top 10 Digital Signage Vendors of 2009.
Rumours are that TELentice may only have until the 21st July to find alternative backers – two reliable sources tell us that its creditors are forcing them to liquidate. We were also told that no-one inside the company has been paid for at least two months.
The problem is that TELentice probably isn’t worth very much since the software is in reality Fujitsu’s. We guess that the management’s plan would be to try and sell whatever TELentice had built up on top of this (software) over the years back to Fujitsu though I bet they’d be happy to entertain any other offers (if there are any DS vendors out there wanting to mop up companies in our top 10 give ’em a call!).
When we spoke to their executive team early this year it seemed to us like they were already trying to exit the (software) space and become some sort of creative house.
The bulk of their revenues would undoubtedly come from CBS Outdoor, both in London and some in the US and there may also be some revenue in the US from the Mall of America but it’s unlikely anything large.
The really interesting question however is how this affects their largest VAR, namely Maler Corporation and their largest customer, CBS Outdoor and what they will both do next.
Our take is that Maler Corp will probably come out of this rather well – we’d expect them to now negotiate the software rights directly from Fujitsu in Australia and carry on pretty much as if nothing has happened but it will be sad to see the first of our Top 10 (effectively) die.
July 9th, 2009 at 14:52 @661
Correct Chris, nothing has happened. We continue as usual. Same great service, same great software.
Cheers
Luis Villafane
MALERCORP