New Chapter for Refinanced Catalina

Shopper intelligence and personalization firm Catalina Marketing has emerged from Chapter 11 status after financial restructuring and a change of ownership. Michael Bailey joins as CTO, and the company has also reaffirmed its commitment to its Nielsen Catalina Solutions JV (NCS), as has Nielsen.

Catalina says it has reduced its debt by 85 percent, from $1.9bn to $276m, and will 'move forward under new ownership comprising its existing lenders'. The firm, which filed for bankruptcy for its US operations ten weeks ago, is headquartered in St. Petersburg, FL, with operations in the US, Europe and Japan. Famous for its shopper data, used by CPG brands to target consumers with behavior-based messages at appropriate times via multiple channels, the company re-focused last year on digital products and services through the launch of the Catalyst purchase data model; big data-based shopper prospect tool Launch Pad, and ad impact tracker Ad2Offer; as well as shopper engagement package buyR3Science.

Turnaround specialist Jerry Sokol (pictured), Catalina's recently appointed President and CEO, said this week: 'This is an exciting day for Catalina as we just became a stronger and very competitive company with solid cash flow, low debt, a healthy balance sheet and a robust digital product pipeline. We believe we have the best media and data platforms, and we are accelerating our investment in disruptive technologies to further Catalina's in-store, digital, data and advanced analytics businesses to help our customers transform the buyer experience. We are also fortifying our buyer intelligence data and adding depth to our personalization capabilities to power our new digital products and solutions'.

Bailey's experience includes working as CTO for Diversified Foodservice Supply, Chief Information Officer for Sygen International and PeoplePC, and VP Technology for Staples. In his new job, he will focus on enhancing and scaling the company's computing power and data security, and optimizing performance of data and analytics solutions.

The announcement about support for NCS is presumably connected both to the new ownership of Catalina and to Nielsen's news today of its partnership with The NPD Group, reassuring the market that the two will exist side by side. NCS allows Nielsen and Catalina to combine their respective datasets on buyer intelligence and consumer media habits to help fmcg brands and retailers with their marketing and targeting. Nielsen CEO David Kenny said: 'Our partnership with Catalina provides clients with business-critical data that helps optimize their return on advertising spend and efficacy of media campaigns. We are pleased to reaffirm the commitment to our relationship with Catalina Marketing'. NCS Chief Exec Matt O'Grady adds: 'Building on our 10-year track record of guiding our clients toward more effective advertising, we will continue to create advanced solutions that enable brand growth, optimize business performance and prove the value of advertising'.

Web sites: www.nielsen.com , www.catalina.com and www.ncsolutions.com .