Joining the growing array of recent
acquisitions is Planar and Runco International, as just today Planar has written a check for $36.7 million to take on the assets of privately-held Runco International, Inc.
Planar, while not a household name in the home theater biz, managed to hold its own amongst competitors in the HT market, and while the majority of its products catered to the mid-range consumer, we suspect that picking up
Runco was the easiest way to launch into the high-end realm. As expected, it looks like the Planar, Runco, and
Vidikron brand names will remain as they are, and just as Planar will continue to sell through its current network of distributors, it sure sounds like Runco will remain a niche offering rather than bleeding over towards the mainstream.
Looks like some serious movin' and shakin' is going on in Bulgaria, where the nation's two largest cable operators have just announced their intentions to merge. Reportedly, CableTel and Evrokom Cable have "submitted an application with the Commission for the Protection of Competition," since the merger must obviously be approved before it actually goes down. If everything slides through, the newly created company will be under the FN Cable Holding umbrella, controlled by investment fund WarburgPincus. We're also still left without details about the company's new name and its head honcho, though we're sure all those tidbits will filter out once the wedding gets a tad closer to being ratified.
