Bassett Getting Sidetracked
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Toronto-based Bassett Media Group Corp., an advertising display holding company, has signed a letter of intent to acquire some assets of Sidetrack Technologies Inc. in a share swap deal worth about $3 million, less assumed liabilities.
Sidetrack owns and operates full-motion advertising display systems in subway and rail tunnels, in San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Monterrey and Rio de Janeiro. Sidetrack’s tunnel vision system combines traditional animation theory with advanced digital technologies to create an extremely unique and highly innovative advertising delivery medium in subway and rail system tunnels. Similar to a children’s ‘flip book’, the Sidetrack system presents 360 sequential images to riders as the train passes by. The images appear to animate, creating commercial ‘mini-movies’ that play for approximately 15 seconds.
Bassett Media plans to meet the price tag of the acquisition by issuing shares at CA22 cents per share. The acquisition is expected to close before the end of September.
“The proposed Sidetrack acquisition marks a significant step toward Bassett Media becoming a global media company,” said Matthew Bassett, the company’s president and CEO. “It will also provide the company with a platform to expand into other mass transit centres.”
Bassett Media’s two primary business units are digital advertising display companies Impulse Media and Concourse Media. Concourse Media is the exclusive provider of digital signage in Toronto’s underground Path system, with screens situated strategically throughout the TD Centre and BCE Place. Its network of 70 high-impact digital display screens reaches over 350,000 viewers on a daily basis.
Impulse operates one of Canada’s largest in-store national retailer digital advertising networks. It focuses on point-of-purchase sales with strategically-positioned digital screens in PharmaPlus and Rexall pharmacies across the country.
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