Deluxe officially acquires Éclair Theatrical Services from JMS group
Los Angeles, November 10, 2021 – Deluxe, a global media services provider to the world’s leading content production studios and distributors, announced today that they have officially closed the acquisition of Europe based Éclair Theatrical Services (ETS) from JMS. ETS is a provider of cinema services including mastering for studios and distributors and electronic delivery of content to cinemas. Financial terms were not disclosed. Deluxe is a portfolio company of Platinum Equity.
Established in 2013, ETS has operations in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, UK & Ireland, and North America with additional points of presence in growth markets including Central Europe and Latin America. ETS is an established provider of digital cinema content mastering and electronic delivery for independent distributors and studio clients throughout its operating territories.
“We are delighted to welcome the ETS group into the Deluxe family and are thrilled to have officially closed this agreement,” said George Eyles, Deluxe EVP and GM of Worldwide Cinema. “With Deluxe and ETS partnering up, we believe we can now provide the best-in-class technology to an enhanced footprint throughout Europe with an additional 3,000 cinemas in 20 territories connected to the broadband electronic delivery network.”
Together with the previous acquisition of Sundog Media Toolkit, a cloud-based mastering platform, and investment in Gofilex, which provides IP delivery, the acquisition of ETS gives Deluxe the scalability, technology, and global footprint to meet the needs of our customers.
ETS representsthe fifth acquisition Deluxe has made since Platinum Equity acquired the business last year. Deluxe, with the financial backing of Platinum Equity, is committed to growth through technology investments and systems innovations.
About Éclair Theatrical Services: Éclair Theatrical Services provides mastering, QC, content distribution services to cinema operators, in 20 countries from its offices in Barcelona, Liège-Barchon, Berlin, London, New York, Paris-Vanves, and Vicenza. At the request of distributors, agents, sales managers and rights holders, Éclair Theatrical Services masters DCPs, manages KDMs and distributes all types of content to cinemas in Europe, North America and Australasia through its own global solutions and its network of 3,000+ connected sites.
About Deluxe: Deluxe provides innovative, secure distribution and localization services for studios, OTT platforms and content creators worldwide. Deluxe’s cloud-based solutions offer unprecedented flexibility and reach through its customizable, end-to-end solutions that enable customers to create, transform, and distribute content and immersive streaming experiences to audiences on a global scale.
About Platinum Equity: Founded in 1995 by Tom Gores, Platinum Equity is a global investment firm with more than $25 billion of assets under management and a portfolio of approximately 40 operating companies that serve customers around the world. The firm is currently investing from Platinum Equity Capital Partners V, a $10 billion global buyout fund, and Platinum Equity Small Cap Fund, a $1.5 billion buyout fund focused on investment opportunities in the lower middle market. Platinum Equity specializes in mergers, acquisitions and operations – a trademarked strategy it calls M&A&O® – acquiring and operating companies in a broad range of business markets, including manufacturing, distribution, transportation and logistics, equipment rental, metals services, media and entertainment, technology, telecommunications and other industries. Over the past 25 years Platinum Equity has completed more than 300 acquisitions.
About JMS: JMS is a European leader in technological services for the feature film and audiovisual world. In 2020, JMS took over all the activities of the Ymagis group and, in addition to the activities of ETS, is now active in the following fields: services for cinema exhibitors (CinemaNext), versioning (EVA), servicing (Eclair Digital Services), content preservation (Eclair Preservation) and Virtual Reality Location Based Entertainment (Illucity).