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Avid Sells Consumer Audio, Video Divisions


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I think they haven't been doing so great through the recession. I'm not personally "up" on their financials, but it's public record since they're a publically traded company, and I've heard rumors that things were somewhat tough for them. Pro Tools HDx systems probably have not been flying off the shelves in this economy, but at the same time, that's their core and most loyal market - the pro recording and post markets. I'm sure the Digidesign hardware (Mboxes, etc.) and software sales also do well for them, so in a way, if they had to downsize and streamline to stay competitive (or even stay in the game at all, depending on how bad it is :idk: ), then selling off the assets that they did probably makes sense.

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There's so much consumer equipment on the market, it's surprising that this isn't happening to more companies. The incessant greed and demand for more profit year after year by the "market" is a contributing factor.

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I workd in the film and TV industry and this is not a surprise. There has been a big push recently by AVID to try and sell its product to the education sector in Britain, a market they previously haven't had much of a foothold. The discounts they were offering were very good, but no good enough to top those being offered by Adobe. Abode are selling site licences for CS6 to British colleges and universities for about $45 a position, that is a huge saving.

A lot of this is driven by the collapse of the Final Cut market after the disaster that is Final Cut X. AVID has around 40% of the world video editing market, Final Cut about 30% with Adobe, Quantel, Lightworks, Sony etc making up the rest. With the Final Cut share up for grabs and Adobe putting in some agressive marketing, AVID would not be able to compete. Selling on their audio and video software division to concentrate on what has always been their core hardware business is a good idea. What this will mean for their software users is another thing. Corel are hardly a good advert for business planning due their inability to predict the rise of Adove in the first place a few years back

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Selling on their audio and video software division to concentrate on what has always been their core hardware business is a good idea.

 

 

Avid is divesting the M-Audio business (which is 90% hardware) as well as the Pinnacle Studio family of consumer video editing software. Pro Tools, Media Composer, Sibelius, and the rest of the audio and video software are staying with Avid. I agree that it seems like a smart move. It's hard for the people who work there, though.

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I have friends who work at M-Audio, although I have not discussed this with either of them yet. I hope everything works out for them!

 

I do think that this will probably mean an end to the Pro Tools M-Powered line, which will probably ease things slightly for Avid from a software development and support standpoint.

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Well from what I've read there will still be pro tools bundles with m-audio interfaces. Looks like the parent company buying them my also provide pro tools bundles with their brands. However they may drop, the m-powered and include plain ole pro tools. I kind of hope so. I think the various versions, with different "features", aka limitations, has made things a mess.

 

Also buried in there is they also sold AIR instruments. Hopefully that means strike will finally get some more updates. And they say they will soon support other plug-in formats. Which could def be a good thing. I could use them in reaper. ;)

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Well from what I've read there will still be pro tools bundles with m-audio interfaces. Looks like the parent company buying them may also provide pro tools bundles with their brands. However they may drop, the m-powered and include plain ole pro tools. I kind of hope so. I think the various versions, with different "features", aka limitations, has made things a mess.

 

I never really understood the need to continue the Pro Tools M-Powered line once they created a version of Pro Tools that would work with practically any hardware. :idk:

 

Also buried in there is they also sold AIR instruments. Hopefully that means strike will finally get some more updates. And they say they will soon support other plug-in formats. Which could def be a good thing. I could use them in reaper.
;)

 

Wow, I missed that part - I'm glad you mentioned it, because that definitely affects me directly. I own Strike and Velvet, and have reviewed most of the AIR stuff, and I'm a big fan of their virtual instruments.

 

Do you know who purchased AIR?

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Same company

 

http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/jack-o-donnell-announces-acquisition-132600537.html

 

Also Russ on the pro tools expert blog has made post wondering if this is avid trimming down to be sold off too. :-/

 

http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2012/7/4/the-real-avid-story-might-be-what-comes-next-comment.html

 

Interesting talk in the the comments also.

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