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Espro purchases Acoustiguide Corporation; consolidating two of the world's largest audio tour companies

Apr 05 2005

ESPRO and Acoustiguide announced today that they had reached a deal to sell the business, assets, and subsidiaries of Acoustiguide Corporation to ESPRO.
In the United States, the company will be known as Acoustiguide Inc., a member of the ESPRO group. Israel Gal, the CEO of the new group said, “ESPRO and Acoustiguide have similar cultures and complementary core strengths in technology innovation, creative services, and marketing. By combining these strengths we expect to accelerate the availability and roll-out of our services to clients around the world.”


The two storied brands have a history of collaboration dating to 1993, when Acoustiguide began representing ESPRO’s INFORM unit – the first random-access digital wand. As the originator of the audio tour concept, Acoustiguide’s name is synonymous with audio tours. The company is a leader in innovative programming and service in the cultural heritage sector in the United States, the United Kingdom and Asia.


ESPRO, the inventor of INFORM, is a widely acknowledged leader in the development of audio tour technologies. ESPRO’s product line includes the exSite Premium and the new MyCollection, a service that combines audio tour bookmarking with publishing on demand of posters and catalogues. MyCollection was developed in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard. ESPRO’s largest companies are in France, Turkey and Israel.


“Geographically, Acoustiguide and ESPRO compliment each other perfectly,” said Israel Gal, “and our greater size and efficiency will result in tremendous strategic advantages. Our combined intellectual capital, regional operations, expanded product line, and research and development teams will offer clients the widest possible range of business models and technology solutions.”
The roster of the Acoustiguide/ESPRO group will comprise some of the world’s best-known museums and heritage sites, including the Museum of Modern Art and The Frick Collection in New York City; the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC; the Norton Simon Museum and the Asian Art Museum in California; the Tate Modern, the Cabinet War Rooms, and the Roman Baths in Britain; the Forbidden City in Beijing; the Rodin Museum in Paris; the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg; the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels; the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul; the Israel Museum in Jerusalem; and the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City.


Current management teams in all subsidiaries and local entities will remain in place. The new company will be headquartered in London, with offices in New York City, Paris, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Shanghai, Taipei, and Sydney.