Ian Dallimore interviewed  Vistar Media CEO Michael Provenzano on Lamar’s Podcast.   In January T-Mobile announced that it had signed an agreement to purchase Vistar Media for $600 million.  Some highlights of the podcast.

Vistar Media Culture

We have this very basic phrase internally people-product-revenue in that order and people smirk when I say it or they’ve heard me say it too many times and make fun of me at the company but we are very serious about that.  We believe you hire and bring on the right people you’ll be able to build a great product and you’ll be able to generate revenue as a business and I think that’s how we approach most of our clients as well…

The deal isn’t closed yet.

We’re driving towards close.  You can announce a deal as we’ve done…and then you have to close the deal which is fun legal work and a lot of money spent on lawyers.

Why telcom carrier T-Mobile bought Vistar.

T-Mobile specifically is a client.  They were one of our biggest clients.  They use all of our products…They believe that they can really make out of home truly targetable and measurable to the next level…They have this amazing relationship with their customers. They have access to this amazing data set across their assets and they believe they can really tie the loop in terms of measurement in out of home and I agree with them…So that’s one of the biggest opportunities that they see.  They also have a massive retail media network and they’re leading the charge on the retail media especially in store and so we’ve been working with them on powering their retail media network from a delivery perspective and monetization perspective and our intention is to take that and grow that into other retailers across the world as well.

Billboard Insider’s Take:  Good for Provenzano and his team.  Good for Lamar which turns its $30 million investment in Vistar Media into $120 million.  We remain skeptical.  It’s one thing for a telcom company to buy another telcom company.  It’s another for a large bureaucratic telcom company to purchase a small nimble ad-tech startup and for everyone to thrive.  Time will tell

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