The Outdoor Group has been acquired by Stroer out of home media. This transaction means that Art Marketing Syndicate is no longer the dominate outdoor firm in this country, especially in the field of billboards.
The outdoor marketing has been going through a bad patch. Nonetheless Janusz Malinowski, the head of Stroer, is hoping for an upturn next year. Janusz Malinowski says that the least attractive billboards have been taken down although in some places larger six by three metre boards will replace them.
Neither side released details of how much the deal was worth although Janusz Malinowski has said in the past that his company was prepared to spend up to PLN40m this year on acquisitions.
It could be that negotiations for Agora to take AMS may have accelerated the negotiating process although both of these companies should find common ground for their own good. AMS may find it hard to find another strategic investor whilst Agora has been talking for such a long time to AMS that the markets may take it negatively that it is no longer interested. At the beginning of September Agora announced tht it may no longer pursue its talks with AMS due to the poor results of the company. Illogically, advertising is often one of the first things to go when a company has to cut costs and the outdoor business has been feeling the pinch for many months. One of the reasons for the difficulties in the business is a lack of a common standard to define how successful a given campaign or poster really is. It is thought that consolidation will accelerate work on common standards which may allow the industry to find new clients.