Digital signage saga of consolidation continues with strategic partnership between Kinly and Utelogy

Over the last several years, the digital signage industry has undergone several key acquisitions, mergers, and partnerships among solution providers, software companies, and integrators or distributors. This consolidation within the industry is only natural as there are a vast array of small companies all competing in the same ecosystem for market share. 

Kinly is a global provider of AV integration services – including digital signage, visual collaboration, collaboration spaces – among other solutions and services within the corporate/enterprise, public sector, and education markets. Utelogy is a software-based AV management and control platform for meeting rooms and conference rooms within the corporate, education, and government vertical markets. For the second consecutive year, Systems Contractor News (SCN) ranks Kinly as a top 3 global systems integrator, behind AVI-SPL and Diversified with the first and second rank, respectively. 

Currently, Kinly is active in three regions: Europe, North America, and Asia. Within Europe, Kinly is already established within the UK, Ireland, Benelux, and Norway, with more recent expansion into the DACH market. In July 2022, Kinly announced new offices in both Germany and Switzerland to target new customers and widen their scope of services to these key countries. Further expansion in overseas markets for the U.S. are also anticipated, with Kinly pursuing new business opportunities and targeting some of the leading Fortune 500 companies. They are also positioning themselves to work with other leading AV or IT vendors in North America to support new and existing customers.

The strategic partnership between Kinly and Utelogy further supports the digital signage industry’s shift toward the blend of software and integration companies, especially within the Pro AV ecosystem. The first notable acquisition in the industry occurred between Stratacache and Scala in 2018, followed by AVI-SPL and Whitlock in 2020. With a highly fragmented market for both software and AV integration companies, Omdia recognizes that consolidation is necessary to sustain market presence on a global scale. These mergers and acquisitions benefit the companies involved by one or more of the following outcomes: expanding regional or country presence with local offices and support, offer products and services to additional vertical markets, and increase channel sales and partners. 

With the pandemic driving the acceleration of several Pro AV trends within corporate and conference room sectors including hybrid workplaces, video conferencing, and unified communications and collaboration (UCC), both software and AV integration companies needed to quickly adapt to remain relevant for industry demands. According to Omdia’s ProAV Vertical Market Viewpoint Service, corporate signage and conference room displays reported overall revenue of $2.3 billion and $2.1 billion in 2021, respectively. Both vertical markets demonstrated year-over-year revenue increases of 29.8% and 46.3% in 2021, respectively, despite the challenges occurring during the onset of the pandemic. For 2022, Omdia forecasts corporate signage revenue to surpass the $2.7 billion mark, along with conference room displays to reach the $1.9 billion level. 

Omdia expects similar mergers and acquisitions to continue over the next several years as further consolidation of the digital signage industry occurs.