CEO Alonso Gone As CBS Outdoor International Rebrands / Reshapes
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Antonio Alonso, CEO of CBS, who actually announced the coming rebranding of the company as Exterion Media a month ago under its new owners Platinum Equity, has left the company
The departure follows the completion of the acquisition of CBS Outdoor International by Platinum Equity, a leading private equity firm specialized in mergers, acquisitions and operations.
“Since becoming CEO in 2009, we have transformed the business and I have enjoyed every minute of the journey,” says Alonso in a company announcement. “With the completion of the sale, the start of the next phase under new ownership feels like a natural break for me to hand over to a new management team who can continue the great work.
“I am enormously proud of the colleagues I have worked with and all that we achieved together, and would like to thank our clients and franchise partners for all their invaluable support.”
Pending the appointment of a new CEO, the executive team will be led by Leon Taviansky, acting chief operating and financial officer.
“We will continue to build the business around helping advertisers to engage the all-important audiences that they want to reach through some of the world’s leading and iconic Out-of-Home advertising estates such as the London Underground in the UK, and through our innovations in digital and interactive solutions across our markets,” says Taviansky.
Under the new ownership, says a formal announcement from the company, Platinum Equity brings complementary expertise which is expected to deliver large scale operational and transformational change. This will enable CBS Outdoor International to accelerate the development of the existing portfolio, continue to innovate in the dynamic out-of-home market and expand its digital and interactive propositions.
Bastian Lueken, head of Platinum Equity’s European investment team, says, “On behalf of CBS Outdoor International, we thank Antonio for all that he has done to build the business and ensure the smooth transition to new ownership. We wish him all the best for future projects.”
The out-of-home advertising company is to rebrand as Exterion Media from Jan.1, 2014.
At the time of the rebranding announcement, Alonso had said, “Our new name truly underlines the fact that we are a newly independent business. It signifies the start of an important chapter, not just for us, but also for the impact we will have on the world of out-of-home advertising as a whole.”
CBS Outdoor International claimed that, over the past three years based on total revenue, it outperformed the rest of the out-of-home market in Europe.
Alonso had added, “Exterion Media, the new name, is distinctive and memorable, and it works in all of our markets. It combines ‘exterior’, which shows that we are experts in outdoor advertising, with a sense of being always active and helping brands engage the audiences they are after. ‘Media’ was chosen deliberately to show that we are not just experts in out-of-home, but the wider media landscape which is constantly changing, not least through some of the ground breaking innovations we are driving.”
“The different components of our logo represent: audiences, our commercial partners – both advertisers & franchise partners and our people, symbolizing that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.”
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