Sound & Communications October 20, 2008 Issue

NEWSLETTERSTRATACACHE ORGANIZES $25 MILLION TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION FUNDSTRATACACHE (Dayton OH; www.stratacache.com) has announced a $25 million acquisition fund targetingtechnology and media companies in the digital signage/digital out-of-home (OOH) media marketplace.“Although out-of-home advertising is one of the fastest growing segments in the industry, tighteningadvertising budgets worldwide are putting increased pressure on many early-stage companies,”noted CEO Chris Riegel. “Many venture-backed or privately held companies with considerable potentialwere expecting unrealistic growth in the short term and are now running into significant financial difficulty.”Marketing spending remains strong and is still expected to increase, but unsteady economicconditions have thwarted an immediate boon in the OOH marketplace.STRATACACHE’s ActiVia for Media digital signage offering manages the complete digital signage lifecyclefor multi-layered playlist creation, content distribution, monitoring and reporting of digital signagenetworks containing up to 250,000 concurrent devices. The firm seeks to grow its offerings and bolsterits emphasis on technology by adding complementary solutions and acquiring appropriately aligned enterprises.Companies interested in exploring acquisition by the company or strategic investment shouldvisit www.stratacache.com/acquisition.php.BARCO ESTABLISHES VLI BUSINESS UNITBarco (Rancho Cordova CA; www.barco.com) has formed the Video & Lighting Integration (VLI) BusinessUnit, a global entity created for systems integrators to meet the demand for integrated solutions inthe fixed-installation marketplace. Within the VLI Business Unit, Barco is creating a dedicated worldwidenetwork of channel partners. VLI will also incorporate all projection requirements for the corporate AVmarket segment. VLI’s product portfolio includes projection, image processing, indoor and outdoor LEDsolutions, and creative LED solutions, as well as lighting and show control products, as provided viaBarco’s recent acquisition of High End Systems (Austin TX; www.highend.com).VLI channel partners will have exclusive access to Barco’s centralized sales, service and channel supportnetwork, which translates to one contact point for products, 24/7 technical support, in-house technicians,spare parts and quick turnaround for repairs. A comprehensive program also includes lead generation,pre- and post-sales support, proposal and project support, training and marketing resources.Dana Corey, VLI vice president, offered exclusive comments to Sound & Communications: “This allows[commercial systems integrators] to align one brand with one customer, in the sense that we’re offeringa portfolio of products, ranging from signal management to display, in the channel,” he said. “It allowsyou, as an integrator, to centralize your activities around one brand….If there’s a problem with thesystem itself, instead of calling three manufacturers with three different products, you’re calling onemanufacturer. It’s all centralized out of Sacramento.”LISTEN TO DISTRIBUTE DIS CONFERENCING SOLUTIONS IN CANADAListen Technologies Corp. (Bluffdale UT; www.listentech.com) and Danish Interpretation Systems (DIS, Copenhagen,Denmark, www.dis.cc) have forged an agreement granting exclusive distributorship of DIS conferencingsolutions in Canada to Listen, effective January 1, 2009, and including DIS’ digital conferencing,discussion and digital IR products. In January 2008, Listen began distributing DIS’ conferencing productsin the United States. The conferencing systems will round out Listen’s FM and infrared portfolio in Canadafor offering solutions for language interpretation, assistive listening, tour group and soundfield.CLEARONE REVEALS FINAL RESULTS OF TENDER OFFERClearOne (Salt Lake City UT; www.clearone.com) has announced the final results of its modified Dutchauction tender offer, which expired on September 16. ClearOne has accepted for purchase 1,342,620shares of its common stock at a price of $5.00 per share, for a total cost, including fees, of about$6.75 million. These shares represent approximately 13% of shares outstanding. With completion ofthe tender offer, ClearOne has approximately 8,888,000 shares of common stock outstanding.COMPILED BY DAN FERRISI AND DAVID A. SILVERMAN10Sound & Communicationswww.soundandcommunications.com