Wireless Ronin Technologies, Inc., a Minneapolis-based digital signage provider, today announced that it has reached agreement with NewSight Corporation to terminate its digital signage agreement and to take ownership of the hardware and software constituting the in-store network at 102 Meijer stores and inventory of hardware necessary to build out approximately 40 more such stores.
"Our belief was that NewSight would have completed its financing transaction in the first half of 2008, laying the groundwork for NewSight's future operations," said Jeffrey C. Mack, Wireless Ronin Technologies President and CEO. "When NewSight failed to obtain such financing, we engaged in discussions resulting in Wireless Ronin taking control of the hardware and software constituting the Meijer in-store network. We are pleased to also have entered into an agreement that provides for the continued operation of the Meijer network, thereby eliminating any disruption to Meijer or its customers. We have also entered into discussions with several national network providers focused on the build-out of the remaining Meijer stores with continued management of the Meijer network by Wireless Ronin. "
"Our belief was that NewSight would have completed its financing transaction in the first half of 2008, laying the groundwork for NewSight's future operations," said Jeffrey C. Mack, Wireless Ronin Technologies President and CEO. "When NewSight failed to obtain such financing, we engaged in discussions resulting in Wireless Ronin taking control of the hardware and software constituting the Meijer in-store network. We are pleased to also have entered into an agreement that provides for the continued operation of the Meijer network, thereby eliminating any disruption to Meijer or its customers. We have also entered into discussions with several national network providers focused on the build-out of the remaining Meijer stores with continued management of the Meijer network by Wireless Ronin. "
Our take:
While Bill might simply say "I told you so," we'd take the slightly more diplomatic stance of saying "don't trust all of your first year's revenue to a start-up company." Of course, when the chips are down and you're a newly-IPO'd firm that needs to show the ability to generate some revenues, we suppose that the pressure might drive the management team to make some bad decisions out of pure desperation. Plus, the digital signage market is still hot enough to attract lots of outside investments, so NewSight was probably able to talk a good enough game to keep Ronin's team hopeful for a long while. It's unclear what Ronin plans to do with the Meijer network or the inventory of hardware on hand to continue its build out. We expect to hear more in the near future.
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