A big bang for the DACH region digital signage market: the digital signage market leaders in Germany and Austria are merging. Austrian K-Businesscom, formerly Kapsch, has been acquired by German Cancom Group.
K-Businesscom, Austria’s leading ICT and digital signage solution provider, becomes part of the German Cancom Group. The merger means a comprehensive expansion of Cancom’s solution and service capacities and is intended to bring about an “enormous increase in market presence in the DACH region”.
Customers should benefit from the bundled competencies for IT and digitalization solutions, associated services and the operation of IT systems. According to Cancom, the existing services and solutions portfolios of both companies complement each other very well. For example, K-Businesscom brings capabilities in Intelligent Networks, Data and IOT to the Cancom Group portfolio. Added to this is the know-how as a digital business engineer for IT and business consulting and software development as well as the KBC Cyber Defense Center.
Relevance for Digital Signage
The merger of the two digital signage leaders will have consequences for the DACH market.
“We have been looking for a long time for a way to bring the Cancom Group into a noticeably stronger market position, particularly in Austria and Switzerland, more quickly than would have been possible through organic growth. The customer structures, the service portfolio, the corporate cultures and the future visions represent a unique starting point for us to jointly address the growth potential of the DACH market. That’s why we and the shareholders of K-Businesscom immediately seized the opportunity to work together,” says Rüdiger Rath, CEO of Cancom.
Integration of Management
The integration of the two companies will also be reflected in the management and supervisory board: Rüdiger Rath and Thomas Stark will move to the supervisory board of K-Businesscom AG, KBC board member Jochen Borenich will become a member of the Cancom Group board as CSO. Franz Semmernegg remains CEO of Kapsch Businesscom, and the management team remains in place.
Franz Semmernegg explains: “We see the greatest joint growth potential in our ICT service models (XaaS), especially in the area of cyber security. The general shortage of skilled workers coupled with constantly growing demands on IT departments and at the same time increasingly complex threat scenarios mean that companies and institutions rely on the combined expertise and services of external ICT specialists.”
A combined digital signage leader
This creates a new super player for the DACH market in the area of ICT and digital signage. Cancom recorded annual sales of 1.3 billion euros in 2022, with 4,000 employees at around 60 locations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Slovakia. K-Businesscom, which was Kapsch Businesscom until 2022, employs 1,650 people in the DACH region, Romania and the Czech Republic. Sales in 2022/2023 amounted to 520 million euros.
In the Digital Signage Market Compass 2022, invidis estimated Cancom’s digital signage revenue at 30 to 50 million euros and K-Businesscom’s at 5 to 10 million euros.
Cancom sees a lot of potential for our shared path. K-Businesscom is planning to further expand its market share, particularly in Switzerland. The first steps for this were set last week: last week K-Businesscom took over 100 percent of the shares in the owner-managed Belsoft Infortix AG. The system integrator with a focus on data centers, networks and security, based in Zurich and branches in Pfäffikon and Basel, has 35 employees and generates sales of around 12 million euros.