Montreal-based Broadsign, which specializes in digital OOH marketing tech, has acquired Ayuda Media Systems in a bid to diversify it’s offering and stand out amidst competition.

Burr Smith, president and CEO of Broadsign, says the acquisition was a combination of wanting to acquire a competitor as well as combining complementary strengths.

He says Broadsign and Ayuda competed on pitches with OOH clients to manage their inventory on “probably half a dozen occasions” in the last year. And while Ayuda has access to around 25,000 screens and Broadsign more than 160,000, Smith says it was more than just a land grab. “Where Ayuda differs is that they specialize a little more in the classic out-of-home, optimizing for static. This can give us a much broader reach across the spectrum of out-of-home activity. We’re still finding that many publishers are asking us, ‘What are you going to do with the classic inventory?'”

He says that although digital and dynamic OOH is growing rapidly – digital faces are still low compared to classic OOH faces, but Canadian ad spend in digital OOH is expected to rise by 10% this year – the market still needs software that can provide availability and inventory management for static OOH. “One of the bigger things we’re finding is that there’s an increasing desire to automate as much of the process as you possibly can. There’s too many efficiencies that need to be built into the system and inefficiencies that need to be designed out.”

The transaction is expected to close in Q2. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

Smith says Ayuda, which is also based in Montreal, will move into the Broadsign offices, with Ayuda functioning as a division of Broadsign. There are no immediate plans to make staff cuts. “We may make some changes, but if that happens, it’s more incidental.”

The combined footprint of the two companies is now 230 employees and access to 425,000 signs (180,000 digitally).