Medallion Financial Corp., a major finance company in the U.S. taxi industry and the biggest U.S. taxi advertising firm, announced Thursday that it has agreed to buy Japan's largest taxi advertising firm, Taxi Media Network Inc., by mid-May.
This will be Medallion's first international foray, it said.
Medallion said Taxi Media Network will be renamed Medallion Media Japan.
The U.S. company will own 92 percent of the firm, while the current executives of Taxi Media Network will continue to own the remainder, Medallion said in a press release.
The amount of the deal has not been disclosed. Taxi Media Network currently provides ads mounted on taxis. It also puts advertising on taxi doors, windows and interiors in several major Japanese cities, including Osaka, Yokohama and Sapporo, according to Medallion.
"What is of extreme interest to us is the size and potential of the Tokyo market. Currently, there are no taxi tops installed in Tokyo, and while there are 12,000 taxis in New York, there are more than 50,000 taxis in Tokyo," Andrew Murstein, president of Medallion, said. A Taxi Media Network official said Medallion hopes in the future that a ban currently imposed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on wrapping taxis with ads will be lifted.