Burlington-based Cannella Response Television LLC has acquired Media Properties Holdings, a New York City-based Media Properties Holdings for an undisclosed price.
CRT is a leading creator of long-form direct response television such as infomercials. It has doubled its employment to 135 people through the acquisition, said Rob Medved, chief executive officer of CRT.
MPH creates shorter television ads and is in the programmatic buying space, which Medved said is the future of TV advertising. This acquisition will give CRT an entry into MPH’s leading advertising platform, AdMore, and top short-form direct-response provider REVShare, which has a proprietary netowork of more than 1,700 broadcast and cable networks.
The merged company will operate out of Burlington in Racine County. It will retain its Milwaukee technology operations center and operational offices in Midtown Manhattan, on Los Angeles’ “Miracle Mile” and in Temecula, Calif. Medved will continue as CEO and Tony Besasie will continue as president of CRT. Brendan Condon, CEO of MPH, will serve as president of the AdMore, REVShare and Lead Generation Technologies units.
ZMC, affiliates of Palladium Equity Partners LLC and Veronis Suhler Stevenson, which invested in Cannella in 2009, will continue to hold their investments in the combined company.
“I’ve known Brendan Condon…for a few years, and our organization has always had a desire to expand our revenue stream by getting into short-form media because we’re segmented particularly in long-form right now,” Medved said. “We are very excited about the opportunity to combine two leading automated ad platforms as we continue to take advantage of the shift in content consumption and distribution.”
“The acquisition of MPH is another great milestone for our 30 year-old company. MPH not only has three great business models with tremendous upside potential, but we’re also getting a phenomenal management team and staff,” said Frank Cannella, founder of CRT.
“We’ve been very fortunate to experience exponential growth at AdMore for the past two years, and its continued success is integral to this acquisition,” Condon said. “We can use all the intelligence and insights gained from our programmatic media planning and buying based on audience engagement with specific content in the short-form and now apply it to the most optimal placement of long-form as well.”
