digEcor rebrands and completes Collins IFE business purchase
On January 18, digEcor officially acquired the commercial Inflight Entertainment (IFE) business from Collins Aerospace. The deal originated with Rockwell Collins, which was acquired by United Technologies in 2018.
The company will now be rebranded as Burrana.
“Burrana is an indigenous Australian word, meaning “to fly,” which aligns to our purpose of helping airlines create extraordinary passenger experiences,” said David Withers, Burrana CEO, in yesterday’s announcement. “It is the history of innovation that is the common thread that binds these two organizations together as Burrana, and the main driver for the acquisition.”
Withers continued: “This thread stretches back over 50 years to the Hughes Avicom and Sony Transcom days, when IFE was in its infancy, and the passenger experience came into focus for airlines. Then came the days of Microair Avionics radios and digEcor’s portable players, through today when the market demands innovative cabin technologies for their passengers – and this is where Burrana will deliver.”
The acquisition brings together the former Rockwell Collins’ PAVES family of seat back and overhead solutions, as well as PAVES™ On-demand, Total Entertainment System (TES), Enhanced Total Entertainment System (ETES) and content services, with digEcor’s GLIDE, Engage, Power, PSS and Lighting products.
“Burrana’s global employee base will deliver innovative cabin technologies reliably and affordably to the market, serving an installed base of more than 1,400 planes and 300 customers, positioning us as the #3 player in the IFE market – and we are not stopping there,” Withers added. “We will achieve our vision of taking the passenger experience to the next level by collectively bringing the right new technology to market and leveraging our engineering expertise and proven ability to rapidly develop and certify new products. We pride ourselves on listening to our customers, understanding their vision and requirements and developing new solutions to deliver on these needs.”
JW Hill Capital, a Newport Beach, California-based private equity firm, supported digEcor in this transaction.
