JPB Enterprises Buys DisplayWorks
-- Tradeshow Week, 1/28/2008
On the final day of 2007, JPB Enterprises, a Columbia, Md.-based private equity firm, acquired Irvine, Calif.-based DisplayWorks from MICE North America.
J.P. Bolduc, chairman and CEO of JPBE, said, “We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to acquire DisplayWorks from MICE North America. … This acquisition is strategic for us, and will expand our geographic footprint for designing, fabricating and servicing tradeshow exhibits and rental displays.”
DisplayWorks, which Bolduc described as “the most innovative and creative company” in its business, is more than two decades old and employs 140 people in offices in San Francisco, Irvine, Calif., and Portland, Ore.
According to DisplayWorks President Herb Hite, MICE North America bought DisplayWorks five years ago. Hite is also the former interim CEO of MICE North America.
“DisplayWorks is very excited to be a part of the JPBE organization,” Hite said. “JPBE's vast business experience, resources and network within the Fortune 1,000 will allow DisplayWorks to strengthen and grow its position in the marketplace.”
Last summer, the London Stock Exchange suspended the shares of MICE North America's U.K.-based parent company, MICE Group. Another division, MICE U.K., went into bankruptcy.
According to Hite, DisplayWorks was one of the final components of the MICE North America business to be sold off, and he expected his former employer would fold entirely by the end of January.
