While the news was from Tel Aviv, Israel, a Norwegian software company called Vizrt has agreed to acquire Norwegian Web CMS vendor Escenic. Vizrt is focused on the media space, with products for media asset management and broadcast graphics. Judging from a recent company presentation (PDF), Vizrt is active around the world with about USD 62 million revenue for the first 9 months this year, compared with Escenic, which had about USD 6 million revenue in the same period.

While Escenic has been a bit quiet recently, it has been an interesting Web CMS vendor to follow. They are a global player in the media space, but have struggled to move outside this niche, with limited e-government success at home in Norway. Unlike most other vendors who follow a more horizontal approach to the market, Escenic has clearly been engineered and refined for journalists and editors working 8 hours with the system every day. With Vizrt they seem to have found a larger global player who shares the same passion for the media space.

This acquisition comes at the closing of a busy year on the Scandinavian CMS scene. First in Denmark in March Synkron was sold to Dynamicweb and then in August Swedish vendor EPiServer changed owners. Some may say it is not unusual for the Norwegians to follow in the footsteps of their regional neighbors, but as a global vendor with a strong footing in the media space, they may actually be a bit better positioned for international growth. As with any merger or acquisition, buyers should carefully study the impact on the product roadmap, as well as keep close and frequent communication with their vendor contacts.

[Update, January 23]: Changed posting to reflect that Vizrt is a Norwegian company and not Israeli as originally reported.