Ryan Seacrest’s Company to Sell a Stake to Clear Channel

Ryan Seacrest, who already is a host, producer and spokesman for Clear Channel, will soon be an investment partner as well.

On Tuesday, the radio conglomerate is expected to announce its acquisition of a minority stake in Mr. Seacrest’s television and film production company, financing future growth and allowing for new collaborations between the two.

The investment in Mr. Seacrest — who will remain the main owner of Ryan Seacrest Productions — comes weeks after Clear Channel Radio renamed itself Clear Channel Media and Entertainment to promote its move into other media, including television.

Separately, the parties involved said, Mr. Seacrest also will work with the two private equity firms that own Clear Channel, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, to identify new investments and acquisitions. The firms have committed as much as $300 million to the initiative, which could focus on music publishers, technology makers or other companies. Mr. Seacrest will help the firms find opportunities and close deals.

The investments attest to the backstage business ambitions of Mr. Seacrest, who became famous a decade ago for hosting “American Idol” on Fox. While remaining a television and radio host, he is simultaneously building a diversified media company by linking up with companies like Clear Channel, the talent agency CAA and the events promoter AEG.

Mr. Seacrest said by telephone Monday night that the Clear Channel investment was an “efficient route for future growth” and said he would tap into the company’s marketing assets, including its many radio stations and Web sites.

Separately, in a deal with CAA and AEG that was announced this month, Mr. Seacrest will have a stake in AXS TV, a cable channel that will replace HDNet this summer.

The parties involved in Tuesday’s announcement would not disclose the size of Clear Channel’s investment in Mr. Seacrest’s production company, but it is expected to produce scripted and unscripted TV shows and other types of content for Clear Channel. Ryan Seacrest Productions currently makes “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and related shows for E! and is preparing new reality shows for CMT and Bravo.

Robert Pittman, the chief executive of Clear Channel, praised Mr. Seacrest as a businessman and said the collaboration was a chance “to share in some of the success we think he’s going to have, and to enable some of it.”

Mr. Seacrest remains in talks with Comcast about an expanded relationship with its E! channel and other parts of NBCUniversal. Such an expansion could include a role on NBC’s “Today” show, prime-time specials and a presence on the company’s coverage of the Olympics.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Seacrest said that the Clear Channel investment would not preclude his productions for NBCUniversal or any other network or studio.

Once the negotiations with NBC conclude, Mr. Seacrest will still have at least one other bit of unfinished business: whether to renew his contract with “American Idol.” His current contract is set to expire this spring, and both he and Fox have signaled that he will probably remain on the show.

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Cambrios Technologies Enters Strategic Growth Phase with New CEO, John LeMoncheck, and New Funding from Samsung …

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Cambrios Technologies Corporation, the leader in nanotechnology-based solutions to enable the development of electronic devices with transparent conductors, entered a new strategic phase today with the appointment of John LeMoncheck as President and CEO, and a $5 million Series D-3 financing round from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation. Both announcements advance Cambrios’ efforts to accelerate product introductions and commercial growth in multiple consumer electronic device markets. Dr. Michael R Knapp, Cambrios founding President and CEO, will become Chairman.
New President and CEO Brings Industry Leadership
“Adding John to the Cambrios executive team was the culmination of an extensive search led by previous CEO and now Chairman, Michael Knapp,” said Clint Bybee, current board member and managing partner at ARCH Venture Partners, an investor in Cambrios. “We welcome John and thank Mike for his leadership of the company, and for helping us recruit a world-class CEO to propel the next phase of Cambrios’ growth.”
LeMoncheck brings extensive expertise in the technology and consumer electronics industries and in forging commercial partnerships. Most recently, as President and CEO of SiBEAM, a pioneer in 60 GHz-based millimeter wave wireless technology, LeMoncheck developed the company into a leader in multi-gigabit communications for the consumer electronics market and successfully led the acquisition of the company by Silicon Image (NASDAQ: SIMG – News).
“John’s successful track record of collaborating with customers and developing essential industry-wide partnerships makes him the ideal candidate to lead and help cultivate new relationships for Cambrios,” said Dr. Leighton Read, current board member and a partner at Alloy Ventures, an investor in Cambrios.
“Cambrios has a unique opportunity resulting from its breakthroughs in the development of transparent conductor solutions with leading-edge optical and conductive properties,” said John LeMoncheck, Cambrios’ new president and CEO. “The company is poised to transform the touch, display, photovoltaic and lighting markets by enabling new and exciting consumer electronics applications. I look forward to working with the team to quickly make this a reality.”
New Investment Signals New Phase for Growth
Samsung Venture Investment Corporation’s investment of $5 million in series D-3 financing will be critical in the advancement of Cambrios’ objective to achieve commercial growth. Leading into this investment, Cambrios was in close discussions for collaboration on important and valuable projects with the Samsung Group over the past several years.
“This strategic partnership with Samsung Venture Investment Corporation offers the opportunity to increase the pace with which we can bring tangible, significant value to Samsung Group companies in their products,” said LeMoncheck. “This is a very important milestone for the overall penetration of ClearOhm™ materials in our target markets.”
Cambrios ClearOhm™ material, which can be purchased from the company as a coating material for plastic or glass, is currently the only product capable of providing the top tier performance required of today’s electronics products by helping manufacturers to consistently achieve better transmission and resistance than is possible with indium tin oxide (ITO). It can also be purchased as already deposited on PET film and others substrates or as a transfer film from several different optical film providers.
“Cambrios leads the market with the development of an alternative to vacuum-deposited ceramic materials such as ITO. It has built a significant business in developing ground-breaking products using nanotechnology,” said Dr. Dong Su Kim, Investment Director, Samsung Ventures, America. “John LeMoncheck’s excellent business vision and Cambrios’ technical accomplishments have led to innovative products that are critical to driving increased adoption of ClearOhm™ materials. We look forward to contributing to Cambrios’ continued progress in powering various consumer electronics applications with its ClearOhm™ technology.”
About John LeMoncheck
John LeMoncheck is a distinguished leader of both startups and public companies. Prior to SiBEAM, he was vice president of Consumer Electronics and PC/Display Products for Silicon Image, where he led to the company’s successful launch and commercialization of the HDMI standard, now used in over 2 billion devices as the preferred digital conductivity solution for consumer devices. Prior to Silicon Image, LeMoncheck was vice president of software and systems engineering at TeraLogic, subsequently purchased by Zoran and now owned by CSR. Prior to joining TeraLogic, LeMoncheck was a member of the founding team and vice president of engineering at Arithmos, Inc., which was successfully acquired by STMicroelectronics. LeMoncheck was also a member of technical staff at Synaptics, a leading developer of interface solutions for the mobile computing and entertainment industries. He has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from U.C. San Diego and spent several years researching VLSI for imaging and pattern recognition applications at Caltech.
About Cambrios
Cambrios leads the industry in the development of proprietary, competitive products for consumer electronics markets using nanotechnology. Cambrios’ breakthroughs in nanotechnology-based transparent electrodes simplify electronics manufacturing processes and improve end-product performance for current and future next-generation consumer devices. The company’s first product, its ClearOhm™ coating material, produces a transparent, conductive film by wet processing and has significantly higher optical and electrical performance than currently used materials such as indium tin oxide and other transparent conductive oxides. Applications of ClearOhm™ coating material include transparent electrodes for touch screens, liquid crystal displays, e-paper, OLED devices, OLED lighting and thin film photovoltaics.
ClearOhm™ is a registered trademark of Cambrios Technologies Corporation.
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