For the second time within the span of a week, a privately-held local visual media has been acquired by a larger entity. Trio Video’s purchase by Pittsburgh-based NEP was followed today by the announcement that ki edit+design has been acquired by tastytrade.
Chicago-based tastytrade is an online financial network that hired ki last May to find and set up its studios in Rhythm Café’s former space at 62 W. Huron and to produce and coordinate “Wall Street squawk meets live improv talk shows.”
tastytrade currently delivers six hours of original, live programming every weekday, with “Get Tasted,” “The Liz & Jenny Show,” “Ask Slim,” and “Last Call.” The tastytrade Network plans to add another hour of daily programming by the middle of April and eight daily hours by the end of the second quarter.
The deal was signed March 21. Terms of the agreement were not made available. tastytrade now has a staff of 40, which include ki’s 24 employees and those of also newly acquired Quiet Foundation, a web development company.
With these acquisitions tastytrade controls all network production and technology infrastructure in-house, and competes directly with larger media firms by delivering original financial content faster, to a wider audience.
ki’s team is behind the cameras
There are 16 people on tastytrade’s staff: 11 in production side, which includes creative and cast members, and five on the business and support side.
ki’s four-person team is behind the cameras: producer, director, switcher and audio engineer, says Anthony Izzo, who co-founded ki with senior editors Paul Kopchak and Pete Hedricks 10 years ago in August.
“We coordinate the live shows and produce pre-recorded material, like promos and commercial bumps and whatever content tastytrade needs to distribute for marketing and public relations purposes.”
ki uploads each daily show to iTunes, Apple TV, Apple Radio, and Roku. Programming is archived, catalogued and accessible 24/7 at tastytrade.com.
“Our multiple field teams big trade shows, like NAB next month, and how they pertain to the market for the ‘Tasty to Go’ segment,” Izzo adds.
ki partners make it unquestionably clear, however, that they will continue to provide full production and design services to their client base, which includes Wrigley, Ford, Miller Lite, ComEd, S.C. Johnson and Rush Copley Medical Center, among others.
“We are very excited to share in tastytrade’s success and to simultaneously propel our company to its next stage of development,” adds Kopchak.
ki has longstanding relationship with tastytrade
ki’s relationship with tastytrade founder Tom Sosnoff dates back several years to its production work for Sosnoff’s company Thinkorswim Group, an online options-brokerage firm that he sold in 2009 for $750 million to TD Ameritrade.
Sosnoff invested personally in tastytrade, along with nontraditional strategic venture partners to launch Tastytrade in May, 2011.
“The leadership teams at both ki edit&design and Quiet Foundation are creative, driven and innovative,” says Sosnoff in a written statement. “Typically, only the largest media companies could integrate to this extent. We now have the resources to create more original content to fill our aggressive production schedule.”
For a subscription fee of $90 year, subscribers receive two trade ideas a day, discounts on investor and other market related products.
