Autocue International, the company that owns the 50-year old Autocue prompting business, has been bought out by private equity company Root Capital for around£2m.
Autocue International, the company that owns the 50-year old Autocue prompting business, has been bought out by private equity company Root Capital for around£2m.

Root Capital has acquired all the Autocue trading operations in the UK and US and will operate as Autocue Group Limited domestically.

Root Capital partner and Autocue chairman Simon Phillips would not comment on the price paid for the businesses but said: "We've got plenty of capital and we plan to invest. Our ambition is to grow the business. Fundamentally it's a very good product brand."

Phillips has appointed Root Capital's Kieran Smith as interim chief executive but expects to make a permanent appointment - internally or externally - within the next 6-12 months. Although no job cuts have been made Phillips said that it wasn't possible to "rule out any cost reductions."

Autocue had gone into administration at the end of April appointing Ernst and Young to seek out parties interested in buying the business. The deal, which went through last week, will bring relief and stability to users of the Autocue software, such as Bloomberg, the BBC and MTV Europe.

Autocue International had lost£2.27m in 2003 and more than£3m in 2002.