Award-winning Fife tech firm Exterity has been acquired by a French rival for an undisclosed sum.
Exterity specialises in IPTV – a way of distributing television around an organisation via its network – and provides hardware as well as software.
Its customers include hotels, cruise liners and Government buildings all over the world.
The Dalgety Bay firm has previously won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise recognising its international trade.
Founded in 2001, the firm has a global network of offices, including Saudi Arabia, US, France, Australia and South Africa and a headcount of 120 staff.
It has been acquired by VITEC, a video streaming specialist with its headquarters in Paris.
Advantages of acquisition
Exterity chief executive Colin Farquhar will remain a central part of the leadership team of the combined company.
He said: “In bringing together VITEC and Exterity, we will be able to offer a wider range of best-in-class products, solutions and services to our customers.
“VITEC’s product portfolio, market strength and company culture are the perfect fit for this next chapter in our IPTV growth.
“I have complete confidence that we will be able to grow stronger together as more and more businesses deploy IP video streaming solutions across their enterprises.
“Exterity has established a large and loyal customer and partner base, with a number of organisations specifying solutions for global projects.
“Bringing together VITEC and Exterity enables us to take advantage of our combined technologies so that our customers will have a broader choice of market-leading IP video solutions to suit their needs.”
VITEC’s plans for growth
VITEC’s founder and chief executive Philippe Wetzel said the move signalled VITEC’s intention to accelerate growth.
He said Exterity would help the group to extend its reach into new geographies and more customers.
“Exterity is a respected IPTV and digital signage leader around the globe,” he said.
“They have developed a robust IP video platform for both hardware and software that has been very successful, particularly in the enterprise and accommodation markets across Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
“Exterity’s engineering excellence, global geographic distribution and complementary business focus was the primary motivation to make this acquisition.
“The combined entity will be the leading IPTV and digital signage provider for corporate, government, military, venues, hospitality and broadcast customers.”
The combined company will have almost 200 staff.
Exterity feels impact of pandemic
Newly filed company accounts for Exterity showed the business remained profitable despite a dramatic fall in income last year.
Turnover fell to £9.7m for the year ending December 31 2020, compared to sales of £15.9m in 2019.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were stated at £272,000 last year compared to £1.4m in 2019.
In his strategic report Mr Farquhar said: “Exterity, like many businesses, was significantly impacted by Covid-19 and the associated restrictions on people’s movements which in turn affected business investment patterns.
“The company took prompt and decisive action to focus on gross margin while managing costs and in doing so managed to remain profitable.
“The directors are confident the business is in a strong position to take advantage of the recovery expected once restrictions around the world start to lift.”
