• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, July 1, 2008

Brand Connections, an out-of-home advertising company, has been sold by the Cypress Group to another private-equity group, Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Chris Harned, a partner with the Cypress Group, said the company received over 50 bids, underscoring the popularity of the niche.

The out-of-home company's assets cover a variety of channels--including digital billboards, product sampling and event marketing--reaching various venues, such as airplanes, hotels, cruise ships, sports arenas and universities.

One division of Brand Connections, the SkyMedia network, is currently the exclusive provider of airline and transportation advertising on airplane tray-tables.

The Brand Connections deal follows a series of acquisitions in the out-of-home industry worldwide, which some observers say is overdue for a shakeout through mergers and consolidation. 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. Then in April, CBS Outdoor bought the International Outdoor Advertising Group, the largest billboard owner in South America, for a $110 million purchase.

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