Viju and CityIS Join Forces to Create a Leading Global Player Within the Visual Communications and Collaboration Technology Market

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Apr 12, 2010, 01:58 ET

STAVANGER, Norway, LONDON, NEW YORK, and SINGAPORE, April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Viju joins forces with CityIS to create a leading global player within the visual communications and collaboration technology market. In response to the growing global demand for videoconferencing and collaboration technologies, the companies realize that by pooling their competence and capabilities that they will be well positioned to offer true global solutions and services to the market and their large international customer base.

Viju and CityIS have both experienced strong organic growth within the last four years. They have increased their joint revenues from $18 million in 2005 to $92 million in 2009, with combined growth rates of 31% in 2008 and 29% in 2009. Both companies have expanded their staff and office locations significantly during this period; the new entity will employ over 200 people from 13 offices across Europe, North America and Asia. The companies have established a strong platform as a specialist global provider within a visual communications megatrend and have ambitions for significant growth in the coming years.

CityIS has developed a strong brand and will continue to operate under this name as part of the Viju Group. The Chairman of Viju, Mr Rune Jensen, will act as Chairman of the CityIS companies and will be joined in the local Boards by Viju's CEO, Mr Kurt S. Helland, the Founder and Chairman of CityIS, Mr John N. Thompson and the local Managing Directors Mr. Stephen Gill in the UK, Mr. James de Poortere in the USA and Mr. Michael See in Singapore. The owners of CityIS will be owners in the Viju Group and Mr John N. Thompson will join the Viju Group Board. Mr James de Poortere will continue to own shares in CityIS Inc, alongside his ownership in the Viju Group.

"Both companies have experienced strong growth despite the financial turmoil in recent years and we have an optimistic view of our joint growth potential in the coming years as the general investment climate improves. In a longer-term perspective, we believe that it will be unusual not to be able to see who you are talking to across distance, whether it's from home, your desktop, a conference room or larger rooms such as auditoriums, control rooms or large visualisation centres, and we are well positioned to serve the professional part of this market," says Rune Jensen, Chairman at Viju.

"CityIS' global reach and strong position in financial, pharmaceutical, legal & media verticals and managed services, combined with Viju's leading position within advanced collaboration and visualization solutions for the international Oil & Gas industry, is a winning combination. Expanding the oil & gas business from CityIS' international locations and bringing our collaboration managed service solutions to Scandinavia are among the prioritized growth areas," says John N. Thompson, Chairman at CityIS.

"Viju's strong financial position will accelerate further growth and expansion throughout the United States," says James de Poortere, CEO at CityIS Inc. "The market potential is huge and with Cisco's acquisition of TANDBERG, our most important technology partner, we believe that the general awareness of visual communications and its collaboration advantages will increase our market growth significantly."

About VijuAS

VijuAS is a leading suppliers of collaboration, communication and visualisation solutions for the oil industry and for other sectors such as education, public sector, health, banking/finance and media. Advanced visualisation solutions for control rooms, production rooms and collaboration rooms are vital to so-called "Integrated operations" and "Smart fields/E-fields" within the oil industry, where Viju has a particularly strong market position. As part of this business Viju has developed Telemedicine solutions combining modern videoconferencing with digital medical equipment that is currently covering 5.000 workers on 34 platforms in the North Sea. Viju has 110 employees located at offices in all the largest cities in Norway and Sweden, but has followed their international customers and done installations in all parts of the world. Vijus majority owner is the Norwegian PE Fund Progressus AS.

www.viju.no

About CityIS

CityIS is a global visual communications company, assisting organizations in realising their ROI and environmental goals through video communications. The company delivers a truly unified communications platform, transforming the way organizations communicate and interact. CityIS' global coverage spans over 90 countries worldwide. Corporate offices are located throughout EMEA, USA and APAC.

www.cityis.com

SOURCE CityIS