Thomson Reuters Sticks With Wireless Ronin, But Changes Business Model

June 15, 2012 by Dave Haynes

It looks like Wireless Ronin is hanging on to (despite chatter to the contrary) and transitioning its relationship with information giant Thomson Reuters from  a product called Infopoint -which has been around for several years – to something called Thomson Reuters Knowledge Direct Digital Signage, or TRKDDS for short (I’m kidding).

The Infopoint system was a display that just pumped Reuters feeds and had pretty limited customization. This new service appears to blend feeds better with the needs of the venue/site/client.

The SEC filing out today says:

On June 6, 2012, Wireless Ronin Technologies, Inc. (the “Company”) entered into a statement of services contract with Thomson Reuters (Market) LLC, a Thomson Reuters Company. As part of this contract, Thomson Reuters will offer and sell to its customers a new digital signage service called Thomson Reuters Knowledge Direct Digital Signage.

This signage solution is designed to inform, entertain and captivate audiences by combining a customer’s messaging with Thomson Reuters news and market data, making it ideal for branches, lobbies, stations, corporate offices, airports and other public spaces. The Thomson Reuters Digital Signage service will consist of content provided by Thomson Reuters and hardware, network and software services exclusively provided by the Company.

The Ronin guys said recently on an earnings call that Infopoint was something Thomson Reuters was using to sweeten the pot when it signed contracts with banks. So it was a cost center.

We’re in the process of transferring from that division, said Ronin CEO Scott Koller, to another division where Thomson Reuters is looking to take the product line to financial institutions as actually a profit center.  

Interesting. This would compete with the Bloomberg on Display product that has Stratacache under the hood.

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