Promotional-products vendor Concord Industries Inc. extended a deadline to complete a proposed merger with Seaena Inc., a Las Vegas company that embosses crystal blocks with images from digital photographs.
The companies announced merger plans in January, and at last report were working toward a mid-May deadline to complete the deal. Norwalk-based Concord Industries and Seaena are now giving themselves until mid-July to iron out the details.
Founded in 1985 as an automobile key-tag maker by spouses Karen and Jim Condron, Concord Industries has broadened its product set to include a range of corporate gifts and other promotional items, today sporting license agreements with Major League Baseball and the NFL. The company has a manufacturing plant in Fitzwilliam, N.H., west of Nashua.
In the keepsakes department, the company is overshadowed in Norwalk by MBI Inc., which at last report employed 800 people locally and pumped sales of $500 million annually selling die-cast metal collectibles, leather-bound books and other trinkets.
By comparison, Seaena is operating on a shoestring. In the first quarter, the company lost $740,000 on $650,000 in revenue, and had less than $300,000 in cash and accounts receivable on March 31. In regulatory filings, Seaena has stated that it needs either to complete the Concord Industries merger or raise outside capital to continue as a going concern.
In the original merger agreement, Seaena indicated the companies would raise $3 million in new funding at the deal”™s close.
Seaena was founded in 1999 as Americabilia.com Inc. via a merger with Worldwide Collectibles, and initially sold items ranging from $15 die-cast cars to a $6,500 love seat made from the rear end of a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. The company had 65 employees at last report.
”“ Alexander Soule
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