Civolution sells Teletrax to focus on content protection
July 31, 2015
By Colin Mann
Civolution, the specialist provider of technology and solutions for identifying, managing and monetising content, has sold its TV Analytics and TV Synced Ads business Teletrax to data science company 4C, enabling company management and its R&D resources to focus entirely on content protection through its NexGuard forensic watermarking business
The acquisition of the Teletrax business unit and its expertise, technologies, solutions and its extensive TV monitoring infrastructure covering more than 2,100 channels across 76 countries positions 4C to deliver value for its clients through social and TV advertising and cross-screen marketing campaigns.
The full Teletrax team of approximately 70 employees, located across Eindhoven, The Netherlands, London, New York and Los Angeles merges with similarly sized 4C.
Following the transaction, Sake Bosch, Managing Partner of Civolution’s investor Prime Ventures has joined 4C’s board of directors. Civolution CEO, Alex Terpstra, remains on the Civolution board and also joins 4C where he assumes the position of Managing Director, EMEA. Additionally, Harrie Tholen, SVP Sales & Marketing at Civolution’s NexGuard business, now becomes Managing Director of NexGuard, taking over the day-to-day management.
Since the formation of Civolution as a spin out of Royal Philips Electronics in 2008 it created a portfolio of watermarking and fingerprinting solutions powering a variety of applications. This transaction is the second successful exit of a Civolution business unit, following the December 2014 sale of its Audio Watermarking business to Kantar Media.
The exits of its Audio Watermarking and Teletrax businesses enable Civolution management and its R&D resources to focus entirely on content protection through its NexGuard forensic watermarking business, which continues to provide world-leading technologies and solutions that help media companies fight content piracy, be it in (post-)production, digital cinema, pay-TV, VoD or OTT streaming.
“This exit of the Teletrax business unit marks a fantastic opportunity for 4C and Teletrax, who share a vision for the future of advertising and offer best-in-class software solutions. Teletrax clients will enjoy 4C’s unique ability to unlock the power of social connections in driving advertising effectiveness, while 4C’s clients gain access to our patented real-time TV analytics and TV synced advertising offerings,” commented Alex Terpstra, CEO, Civolution. “This milestone furthermore enables Civolution to be even more laser-focused on its industry leading NexGuard forensic watermarking solutions against the illegal re-distribution of content, the greatest piracy threat facing the content industry today.”
“Data science is the lifeblood of 4C and Teletrax brings some of the most valuable proprietary data available,” said Dr. Alok Choudhary, Founder and Chief Scientist of 4C. “4C has been ingesting data from social media, set top boxes, and other sources for years but Teletrax delivers real-time TV data on an unmatched global scale. Combining our data sets will allow us to create even more powerful solutions for advertising planning, measurement, and buying.”
“We could not be more excited about the combination of 4C and Teletrax,” continued Terpstra, “Both companies share a vision for the future of advertising and offer best-in-class software solutions. Teletrax clients will soon enjoy 4C’s unique ability to unlock the power of social connections in driving advertising effectiveness, while 4C’s clients gain access to our real-time TV analytics and TV synced advertising offerings. It truly is a win-win for everyone involved.”
To enable the transaction and provide for additional growth capital, 4C has closed further investment led by Jump Capital.