• by Erik Sass , April 25, 2008

The out-of-home advertising arena, long poised for a shakeout, saw a big international play last week with CBS Outdoor's $110 million purchase of the International Outdoor Advertising Group, the largest billboard owner in South America.

The deal will boost CBS Outdoor's reach with over 17,000 new surfaces, mostly located in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.

The news follows several years of predictions that outdoor advertising will see a wave of consolidation both in the U.S. domestic market and abroad. But despite these predictions, there haven't been many noteworthy deals since 2006.

In March 2006, the U.S. outdoor company Titan bought Maiden, a British outdoor advertiser in financial distress. Shortly afterward, Clear Channel Outdoor acquired Van Wagner's British division in May 2006, as well as Interspace, an airport advertiser, around the same time, on the home front.

International competitor J.C. Decaux made just a few mid-sized deals in 2007, including several joint ventures in the Middle East. That was a relatively quiet year compared to 2006, which saw the acquisition of MAG International, an Eastern European outdoor advertiser, VVR-Berek, a German outdoor company serving Berlin, and several Ukrainian and Russian outdoor companies in 2006.

This year, however, the pace may be picking up.

In March, Lamar paid $100 million for Vista, the outdoor division of Entravision Communications. The acquisition brought 10,600 installations into Lamar's network, mostly billboards and poster spots in New York and Los Angeles.