GoVision goes back to its North Texas roots as founder buys back LED display company
A North Texas company that provided large video displays for presidents, popes, concerts and major sporting events is back in local hands.
GoVision, based in Argyle, is acquired by a group led by founder Chris Curtis.
In 2016, Learfield Sports, a collegiate sports marketing firm, acquired GoVision and incorporated it into its ANC Events group. However, Learfield has had a difficult time recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and has lost nearly $2 billion over the past few years, according to reports.
When Curtis was offered the chance to tune back into the LED video display business he founded, he jumped at the chance.
“It’s a huge opportunity to take what we’ve always done and what it’s built upon over time,” Curtis said.
Curtis worked with ANC Chief Executive Kevin Faciane to buy the ANC’s Events division, along with some financiers he declined to name. No purchase price on the transaction has been released. Faciane and Curtis will rebrand the company once again as GoVision. Faciane joined GoVision in 2014.
“Kevin has been running this business unit this entire time, so he has the experience that goes with it,” Curtis said. “He and I are 50/50 partners in this deal and we’re really looking forward to moving it forward,” Curtis said.
Curtis founded GoVision in 2002 and has grown the company into a full-service provider of large-scale LED video displays and related services. Its technologies and services are currently used in approximately 1,000 major sporting events, concerts, festivals and corporate events around the world.
Since 2002, the company has provided large video screens for more than 25,000 events, including the 2015 papal visit, multiple NCAA Final Fours, Super Bowls, Ryder Cups, PGA tournaments and professional All-Star Games. GoVision is the official screen supplier to over 25 venues for Live Nation, Bristol Motor Speedway, The LPGA Tour and several universities.
“We are very proud of our history,” Curtis said.
In its latest incarnation, GoVision will operate as a standalone entity, but maintain a relationship with ANC, with both parties working jointly on projects and events. GoVision will also provide ANC with services previously handled by ANC’s Texas division, including accounting, human resources, inventory, event project management, design and technical support.
Under Faciane’s leadership since 2018, ANC Events has continued to lead the way in providing LED screens to major events and has maintained key relationships with the NCAA, ESPN, PGA and LPGA, Live Nation Entertainment and Chickasaw Nation, Curtis said. The company also expanded its fixed installation LED display business focusing on live entertainment venues, casino and gaming destinations, and motorsports facilities.
“It has been a pleasure and an honor to lead ANC events for the past four years, but having the chance to partner with Chris once again and bring GoVision back to its cultural roots has been a great opportunity,” said Faciane, who will be CEO and partner at GoVision.
For Curtis, a key change in the business since he sold GoVision in 2016 is the growth of competition.
“As technology has gotten cheaper and better, there are more people in the industry,” she said. “There’s just more competition out there.”
Curtis believes GoVison has an edge because of the company’s experienced management team.
“What many competitors don’t realize is that what we do tends to be the most important thing anyone is doing,” Curtis said. “You have a small festival, local volunteers run and this event is the biggest thing they will do this year. And so we have to treat it that way until the presidential inauguration.
Those big screens are always the focal point of a big event, Curtis said, making it a challenge to consistently pull off an event successfully.
“You’re always a focal point, which makes it fun and exciting,” she said. “So with us, the experience we have here, it really pays off.”
GoVision is about to enter its busy month, with AT&T Byron Nelson in McKinney followed by the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth.
“We are excited to play the national stage, yet here we are in our backyard,” Curtis said.
Along with Curtis and Faciane, GoVision’s management team includes CFO Kristy Johnston, senior vice president of operations Jeff Williams and vice president of personnel and administration Steven Myrick. Several key players will continue to lead their respective divisions, including Brett Amman, senior vice president of golf, Brad Merriman, vice president of business development and projects, and Patrick Carlile, vice president of sports and entertainment.
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at [email protected]. At Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial backers. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
