London, U.K.-based content rights management company Compact Media has been acquired by Toronto-based independent publishing rights management firm Ole. It’s Ole’s first major acquisition since securing a US$500-million financing from 12 U.S. and Canadian banks, led by Los Angeles-based City National Bank. 

The deal is designed to provide Ole a means by which it can extend itself into the world of video production rights outside the realm of music.

For Compact, it brings access to deeper pockets from which it can draw to bolster its prodco financing efforts. Compact recently inked a production finance deal with indie prodco Urban Canyons for its docu-series Warrior Women, the latest move into the production space since the launch of its production-finance initiative in October 2015. The initiative will focus on up to 20 production investments in original content over 12 months.

“The Ole and Compact combination presents the possibility of bringing Ole’s substantial capital to bear for producers, via the monetization of rights or advances on an unprecedented bundle of rights including AVSR, Publishing, OTT distribution,” Robert Ott, chair and CEO, Ole, told realscreen in an email. “As Ole is also very active in the AV space, combined, our companies can offer an unparalleled, one-stop shopping rights management service capability around the globe.”

Compact will remain under its own brand and the direction of CEO David Johnson (pictured).

Ole has investments of over US$550 million in music IP, and is engaged in IP acquisitions, creative development and worldwide rights management, with a catalogue of over 55,000 songs and 60,000 genre-spanning hours of TV and film music and copyright control of songs recorded by the likes of Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Jay Z, Rihanna and Britney Spears. It also boasts a roster of over 120 staff songwriters, legacy writers and composers.

“The acquisition enables both companies to strengthen their offering,” said Johnson via email. “The Ole international collections platform has significant reach which, together with Compact’s TV /AV client-base and extensive network of content producers, will create real value for our customers. The Ole-Compact combination will allow us to extend the support we offer our client-base, taking content through its life-cycle, from financing and facilitating content production through to realising its financial potential with rights management and collection.”

From Realscreen