Finnish Interactive Display Firm MultiTaction Bankrupt, Prompting Re-Org Move In US, Bundled Solutions From Competitors
July 11, 2022 by Dave Haynes
The Finnish firm MultiTaction, known for slick multitouch display hardware and software, has gone under, compelling an evidently separate US wing of the company to says it will buy the assets and do a re-organization.
Multitaction Americas Inc. has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire the assets of the group, it says, and will be the sole owner of the business assets, with worldwide distribution and support.
The new structure, which was to be put in place at the start of June, has the company led in North America by CEO and President Dan Acquafredda, COO Danny Santiano, and Senior VP Jukka Riivari.
“Over our 15-year history, MultiTaction has constantly evolved to stay ahead of the times. Today’s announcement is no different. We firmly believe that this strategic reorganization is the right step for more profitable growth and is the best path forward for our clients and our team,” says Acquafredda. “We will continue supporting our clients worldwide together with our world-class partners”.
The company’s new structure will give us a fresh, debt-free start with a great deal of momentum with recent company successes. It will simplify our infrastructure and bring us closer to our customers and partners. We will continue focusing our resources and people on critical areas such as hardware and software development, customer support, and business operations. These changes will set the foundation for accelerating our growth, ensuring we continue to be the leading company in creating superior touchscreen-based user experience for communication and collaboration.
MultiTouch has been around the pro AV and digital signage ecosystems for some 15 years, showing slick interactive video walls that could be used by multiple people at once. It always looked impressive, but the “solutions” did not come cheap. The company had it best sales year in 2019 (with 16M EU turnover), but then ran into a business wall, with COVID closing so many doors. While many touch screen companies skated through the pandemic because they offered self-service solutions that reduced staff/customer contacts and addressed labor shortages, my gut tells me MultiTaction’s business dried up from the museums, attractions and corporate briefing centers that would use technology like that.
The company’s challenge has been selling a solution that has Mercedes quality, but also Mercedes pricing, when a lot of end-users want something like a well-built but reliable, and much more affordable Toyota. The MultiTaction folks would debate this point, I’m sure, but what they deliver is in most cases a very nice to have, not a need to have.
The company received COVID relief funding – some 735,000 EU – in the last couple of years, but it was not enough to prevent bankruptcy filings that went through in May 2022.
The situation, positioned as uncertainty, has prompted a pair of other suppliers in the touch ecosystem to partner, bundle and market a solution that they say competes favorably with Multitouch solutions on both price and user experience. Intuiface pushed out PR recently suggesting its no-code interactive software paired with the zero-bezel flat panel touch displays
“In contrast to the high cost of MultiTaction hardware, software, and services, the combined DISPLAX and Intuiface solutions are significantly more cost-effective, accommodating a far wider range of budgets,” the companies argue. “This comes without sacrificing quality as both companies are known for robust product reliability, assuring a future with no worries regarding support or product continuity.”
Intuiface, from France, and Displax, from Portugal, were already tight business partners prior to the bankruptcy, with Displax using Intuiface software in its booths at the recent ISE and InfoComm trade shows.
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