Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
It looks like Firefly Systems and their investor Ballantyne Strong, Inc. (NYSE American: BTN) are both continuing to re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. The latest news is that Firefly Systems have acquired the static taxi top business from Strong Outdoor but let’s look at this more closely…
Back in April 2018, Strong Digital Media, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ballantyne Strong, Inc. (NYSE American: BTN) were going to transform taxi media by deploying 4000 digital taxi tops. Then, a year later Strong Outdoor announced a partnership with Firefly’s dynamic smart media platform and became a strategic investor and partner in Firefly.
This week, Ballantyne Strong, Inc., a holding company with diverse business activities focused on serving the entertainment, retail and advertising markets, announced that it has completed the sale of its Strong Outdoor out-of-home advertising business to Firefly Systems Inc. AND increased its strategic investment in Firefly to USD 13 Million (taking a larger shareholder position).
This transaction completes the sale of all of Strong Outdoor’s remaining taxi-top advertising business in exchange for equity in Firefly.
Mark Roberson, CEO of Ballantyne Strong was quoted as saying “We are excited to increase our position in Firefly as they expand their digital advertising platform in major cities across the United States. Strong Outdoor established itself as a significant player in the New York out of home advertising market and is a perfect addition to Firefly’s successful national rideshare and taxi-top advertising business. As a result of the transactions, Ballantyne will hold Firefly Series A-2 and Series A-3 preferred shares valued at approximately $13 million and expects to recognize a non-cash pretax gain of approximately $5 million in the third quarter. We look forward to participating in Firefly’s success as one of its largest venture investors as they leverage their increasing scale in the marketplace.”
In March 2020, Firefly Systems reportedly let go half of their employees due to the #COVID19 crisis and by our reckoning, Firefly has spent well over USD 60M of investor money trying to ultimately make themselves look like CURB MEDIA.
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