Ciba sells color-matching expertise and proprietary software
Ciba Inc.
March 30, 2009
Basel, Switzerland
News Release
- Ciba® COLIBRI™ software and color-matching know-how will be provided by Ciba partner Nexirius from April 1, 2009
- Management spin-off ensures service continuity and future system development in step with customer needs
- Konica Minolta remains main global distributor of COLIBRI™ software
Ciba has sold the rights to Ciba® COLIBRI™, an innovative color-matching system for the plastics and coatings industries, in a management buyout that will transfer the business to its partner Nexirius on April 1, 2009. By combining Ciba’s color-matching software and expertise with Nexirius’s experience in developing the software, the spin-off ensures continuity of service as well as ongoing development of the COLIBRI™ system in step with customer needs. As part of the deal, Nexirius will assume all COLIBRI™ support and maintenance contracts, and Ciba will become a key customer. Konica Minolta Sensing will remain the main global distributor of the COLIBRI™ system.
“We are very pleased with this agreement,” says Thomas Engelhardt, Global Head of Ciba’s Coating Effects Segment. “Having worked closely with Nexirius for years, we are confident that the spin-off of this business will benefit customers who, like Ciba, have come to depend on the COLIBRI™ team for the most state-of-the-art color-matching services available.”
Business managers Judy van de Langkruis and Michael Jakobi will leave Ciba to join Nexirius as Sales & Marketing Director and Business Operations Director, respectively. Jakobi remarks: “This move will unite Nexirius’s 18 years of software development experience with Ciba’s profound color-matching expertise within a single, sustainable business. We are committed to developing the next generation of color-matching solutions in response to our customers’ needs.”
Andreas Ullrich, Marketing & Sales Manager for Konica Minolta Sensing in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, adds: “The new set-up assures our customers continued access to the COLIBRI™ team’s outstanding know-how and tools as well as to Konica Minolta’s marketing, sales and support network. The new team at Nexirius represents a competent, reliable partner that offers continuity and innovation in the field of color-matching.”
The Ciba® COLIBRI™ product line consists of several software products for applications in plastics, inks, paints and coatings. Besides its ability to accurately handle opaque, translucent and transparent materials and metallic effects, the Colibri™ system is fully integrated into an innovative online color communication platform specifically designed to manage the customer’s complete color program, from standards development and digital compliance criteria to individual supplier review. From April 1, it will be marketed without the Ciba masterbrand under the name COLIBRI™.
COLIBRITM