PRISA brings TALOS as investor to unite forces and expand a Retail Media Network

PRISA, the world's leading Spanish and Portuguese entertainment, education and information media company, and In-Store Broadcasting Network (IBN), the world's largest Retail Media company, announced that they will form a partnership and 50/50 joint venture to build a Retail Media network throughout Spain and Latin America.

PRISA has retained Violy and Company to assist with its strategic repositioning plan, which includes finding strategic media and technology partners, and transforming the company from a distribution-centric to a consumer-centric model media platform.

In May 2009, Violy McCausland, the Principal of Violy and Company, introduced PRISA to Talos Partners, whose chairman, Robert Brazell, is also the chairman of IBN.

As a result, Talos Partners, a Merchant Bank headquartered in New York City, announced that it would purchase up to 10 million shares of PRISA's treasury stock representing a 4.5% stake in the media giant.

"PRISA has worked hard, especially during these past few months, in not just understanding the future of the media industry, but also by showing that we can be one of the leaders of the transformation that is required. The partnership with IBN is an example of this type of ‘out-of-the-box' thinking", said Juan-Luis Cebrián, the CEO of PRISA.

Brazell, who has been openly critical of traditional media companies in books and articles, said; "PRISA is the first intelligent, diversified, customer centric, device agnostic, media group I have seen in ten years." PRISA has successfully transitioned in the new media model and will continue to dominate the modern Spanish speaking media for the next twenty years."

As for the Talos investment, "This PRISA partnership has moved all over our firm during the past few months," said Brazell. "It began as a strategic partnership, then migrated to our structured lending guys, and finally ended up with our capital group. When our team presented the in-store media partnership, we became more interested in PRISA's core business. The more we drilled down past vision into technology and asset integration, the more we wanted to own part of this business."

Stephen Norris, a co-founder of the Carlyle Group and currently a Talos board member and member of the investment committee added; "The Latin media market, which PRISA dominates, represents a substantial growth opportunity. We are very bullish on Latin America and we feel like we get a double bump in value in Latin American investments today; first we buy unlocked value; second we ride the Latin growth wave."

Talos, recognizes that PRISA is clearly undervalued. "We are most excited about what we call 'hidden value'; the ability to grow without new cost. We see strong growth across every business unit at PRISA and an aggressive technology plan to integrate."

PRISA will benefit by having a new distribution channel for all of its radio and television content, and by increasing its presence in the U.S. in partnership with a company that shares its "Customer Centric" vision. "It's a perfect fit," says Robert Brazell.

PRISA, with more than 1,200 radio stations in 10 countries, and market leadership in Spain, Colombia and Chile, will provide expertise and experience in radio programming tailored to regional preferences, a broad news gathering organization with seasoned editorial experience in 22 countries, and high quality audiovisual production capacity in Spain, Portugal and the USA.

IBN through its technology and delivery channels will facilitate contact with consumers at the point-of-sale, where many purchasing decisions are made.

 About Talos Partners

Talos Partners is a Merchant Bank headquartered in New York City. Talos owns and operates several subsidiary companies including Talos Capital, Talos Pacific Real Estate, and various Talos Special Opportunity Funds. The company has offices in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles and investment partners in Latin America and Europe. Talos is currently establishing offices in Hong Kong.

The firm is managed and operated by a renowned, diverse, accomplished group of business and government leaders with proven track records. Talos is often known for unique and creative investing and financial structure and strategic combination of assets or businesses. Talos' investment charter includes small, mid, and large cap companies with capital needs for growth or acquisition. 

About PRISA

PRISA is the world's leading Spanish and Portuguese-language business group in the fields of education, information and entertainment. Present in 22 countries, it reaches 43 million users through its global brands El País, 40 Principales, Santillana and Alfaguara. It's presence in Brazil and Portugal and among the growing Hispanic community in the US has given the group an Ibero-American dimension and has opened up a potential global market of 700 million people.

About In-Store Broadcast Network (IBN)

IBN is a pioneer and leader in the Retail Media. The company operates an in-store digital network in nearly 15,000 grocery and chain drug stores in 200 markets throughout the US and Canada and reaches more than 150 million people multiple times each month at the point-of-sale. The company has foundation intellectual property rights in the areas of in-store marketing technology, shopper identification in the store, and shelf-based interactive video systems, among others. IBN is also leading the way in the development of interactive touch-sensitive shelf-based media. Their proprietary technology automates store-level programming and allows for multi-channel (audio and video) synchronization and comprehensive remote control, operation, and component health monitoring. The IBN platform integrates multiple consumer ‘touch points' within the store to present seamless, relevant, customer-oriented content as an informative, educational, and entertaining enhancement to the customer experience in-store.