Kortrijk, Belgium, 17 March 2010 – Barco announces it has acquired the products, intellectual property (IP) rights and know-how of Element Labs, an LED video systems expert based in Santa Clara, California. With a focus on mid-end market requirements in rental, staging and fixed installations, the Element Labs products complement Barco's existing high-end product range.
Through this transaction, Barco strengthens its position as a leading provider of LED, projection, image processing and lighting products. This comprehensive product portfolio allows Barco to serve customers with different budget levels in the media and entertainment market. Barco will not book any goodwill on this transaction.
“This expands Barco's portfolio for the mid-range markets,” Eric Van Zele, Barco's President and CEO, comments. “Element Labs' products in these markets have proven their worth on many occasions and perfectly complement Barco's more high-end oriented market portfolio.”
Paul Matthijs, VP of Barco's Video & Lighting Solutions business, continues: “Element Labs' products have added a spectacular dimension to numerous concerts, events, corporate headquarters and flagship stores around the world. This transaction will help to accelerate the turnaround which is under way in our Video & Lighting activities, by enabling Barco to address a wider segment of the market, and further leveraging Barco's existing sales, marketing, and service capabilities.”
With immediate effect, the name “Element Labs” ceases to exist. Structured as an asset sales transaction, Barco obtains all product designs, rights and intellectual property of Element Labs, without assuming the liabilities of the former EL-company. As of today, the core team of Element Labs in Santa Clara, California, will function as Barco's competence center for creative LED solutions, whereas Barco Kuurne (Belgium) will remain the competence center for tiled LED solutions. Barco will announce its new mid-range LED products in the coming months.
About Barco
Barco, a global technology company, designs and develops visualization products for a variety of selected professional markets. Barco has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco (Euronext Brussels: BAR) is active in more than 90 countries with about 3100 employees worldwide. Barco posted sales of euro 638 million in 2009.