Europe's Barco will buy Montreal-based X2O Media for US$18.6m or about 4X the Canadian company's 2013 revenue.

X2O Media will now be integrated in the Barco organization to fit in with Barco’s strategy to move beyond display and projection technology.  

This acquisition gives Barco a comprehensive solution to deliver enhanced and cross-divisional content distribution and workflow, based on advanced networking and connectivity capabilities.

Established in 2006 as a spin-off from VertigoXmedia, X2O Media benefited from its expertise in broadcast graphics automation. X2O developed an HTML5-based platform that delivers real-time content through dynamic and interactive channels, from any source to any screen, anywhere — including digital signage.

“X2O Media perfectly complements our offering and skills portfolio, and is an important step in our strategy to expand our portfolio beyond video and imaging,” says Eric Van Zele, CEO of Barco. “Customers’ expectations regarding workflow and content management shift to end-to-end and easy-to-use visualization systems and cloud-based solutions. X2O Media’s platform will play a crucial role in allowing Barco to tap into these new opportunities, while differentiating itself further from competition. The X2O software platform versatility, and its capability to address any display - be it fixed or mobile - will prove to be an important asset and allows Barco to link any content from any media to any device.”

X2O’s tools aim to be as powerful and versatile as those used by broadcasters, without requiring the expertise of a broadcast engineer.

X2O wants to enable anyone without any programming skills to create dynamic channels of content that look as good as what you see on TV.

Their HTML5-based platform enables real-time visual communications to an audience, at a precise time, on most devices.  The platform includes plug-ins, “objects” for almost any type of data-source, from local database-systems, over collaboration sites (SharePoint, Exchange…) up to dynamic data feeds from social media or news sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube…).

“We are pleased to be welcomed at a major company like Barco, which will hugely expand our market reach,” says David Wilkins, President and CEO of X2O Media. “Barco is a technology company with a focus on visualization infrastructure and image quality. Adding X2O Media’s application software and workflow focused capabilities, will allow both companies to go to the market with a more comprehensive offering. At the moment, our market is limited to North America, but benefiting from Barco’s global network we will be able to grow our activities worldwide.”

Based on the official comments, the plan will include Barco bringing the X20 Media platform into the EMEA markets...

Go to the X20 and Barco deal