Cary Sherburne: Hi, I’m Cary Sherburne, Senior Editor at WhatTheyThink. And I’m here with Giovanni Marra, who is the Director of Corporate Marketing for Pantone. Welcome.

Giovanni Marra: Thank you, thanks for having me.

Cary Sherburne: Nice to have you here, Pantone. Bright colors, nice shirt.

Giovanni Marra: We’re trying, thank you.

Cary Sherburne: And it’s been a while, almost five years, right, since X-rite and Pantone got together. Maybe you could just give our viewers a little update on what’s going on with the company in terms of more integration.

Giovanni Marra: Sure, definitely. X-Rite acquired Pantone in late 2007. And the last couple of years we’ve been pulling companies together closer and closer. It’s a very logical fit, which we knew from the start. So Pantone has almost 50 years, next year it will be 50 years, of color language and color matching history. X-rite has a very long history as well of being leaders in color science and color measurement. So we’re been trying to find the best places to be able to fit the two companies together, and really coming out with solutions so that we can help our customers all the way from the inspiration process all the way through manufacturing production. And to get final realization of whatever their color is.

Cary Sherburne: Including, which I just became aware of recently, I never really thought about it. But including ink formulators.

Giovanni Marra: Yes.

Cary Sherburne: Yeah, which is a really important part of the picture. And now, recently, there was some really exciting news announced relative to Danaher.

Giovanni Marra: Yes. A company called Danaher is in the process of acquiring X-rite and Pantone. And we’re very excited about the potential. The company has a very long, very successful history of acquiring companies and making them even more successful. So we’re very excited for what the opportunities lie ahead.

Cary Sherburne: Yeah, and I had the opportunity recently at Drupa in Germany, had the opportunity to hear from the CEO of Danaher at one of the press conferences. And he was talking about how they manage the companies. And it’s not just a, “Let’s buy this and turn it over and sell it and make money.” They’ve owned Esko for a while, and the folks at Esko have been really, really happy with the relationship. So I hope it all comes together and you're able to join that family.

Giovanni Marra: Great, thanks.

Cary Sherburne: Great having you here.

Giovanni Marra: Nice, thank you.