Sony sells its Memnon archiving division to ES Broadcast

ES Broadcast announced its acquisition of Sony’s Memnon archiving solution arm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Memnon provides services worldwide to enable clients to digitize, preserve and access historical recordings. It operates facilities in Belgium, the United States and Australia.

This marks the second spinoff from Sony’s professional services recently. Earlier this month, the company announced the sale of its Sony New Media Solutions media cloud division to Deluxe.

ES Broadcast currently provides its media services mainly to U.K. clients through its LMH subsidiary. The acquisition expands its reach and augments its existing client offerings, which include systems integration, equipment sales and hire.

“The acquisition is an integral part of our global strategy of increasing the focus on services-led solutions,” said ES Broadcast group CEO Ben Murphy. “It is a powerful combination of two leading service providers with the ability to reach a global audience of media and entertainment clients as well as institutional businesses, such as museums, libraries, archives and universities.”

“Combining the expertise of Memnon’s existing team with the wider pool of highly technical talent at ES Broadcast’s disposal creates the exciting prospect of further solution innovation and service development across the business, which will only be of benefit to our customers.”

Current Memnon CEO Baku Morikuni will step down from his role as part of the transition. Michel Merten, who originally founded Memnon, will assume management of the company’s EMEA and APAC operation, while Andrew Dapuzzo will continue to steer the business in the U.S. LMH, which will maintain its focus on delivering media services to U.K. clients, is led by managing director Gary Edwards, who will help to oversee the integration of the two businesses.

ES Broadcast currently operates across 10 locations in the U.K., U.S. and Spain and works with sports bodies, broadcasters, service providers, institutions and historic and national library archives.

“With LMH having grown its digitization and archiving offering significantly in recent years, there are a lot of synergies with Memnon, which is recognized as a leading light in that area. We are excited to be bringing Memnon into the group and enabling its customers to access the wide range of services and unsurpassed technical expertise that ES Broadcast offers,” said Edward Saunders, executive chairman of ES Broadcast. TV Technology