Avid buys out Euphonix

2255 Views 20 Replies 11 Participants Last post by bassman17, May 1, 2010

planetnine

Discussion Starter · Apr 15, 2010

Avid Announces Agreement to Acquire Euphonix

Las Vegas, NV, 2010-04-11
Comprehensive range of audio and video control surfaces and consoles expands Avid portfolio to provide seamless interoperability across broad spectrum of third-party solutions for every customer

LAS VEGAS, NV, April 11, 2010 – NAB (Booth #SU902) – Avid® (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Mountain View, CA-based Euphonix, a leader in large-format digital audio consoles, media controllers and peripherals. With the acquisition, Avid will deliver a broad range of audio and video control surfaces and consoles designed to meet the needs of customers ranging from the independent professional to the high-end broadcaster. Avid plans to continue to support and sell both Euphonix control surfaces and Avid’s existing ICON solution, enabling customers to leverage existing investments in industry-leading hardware.

“This acquisition greatly expands our portfolio to offer customers a complementary set of workflow solutions–from independent producers creating music in their home studios to broadcasters preparing segments for national broadcast,” said Gary Greenfield, chairman and CEO, Avid. “We remain committed to driving interoperability and modularity across a vast ecosystem of Avid and third-party creative hardware and software solutions. And, as audio and video workflows continue to converge, we are now well positioned to deliver control surfaces that work across both audio and video applications, making the content creation process more cost-effective and efficient for our customers.”

Avid plans to further develop an open standard protocol that greatly expands the ecosystem of compatibility between the Euphonix control surfaces and a wide range of Avid and third-party audio and video applications, including Media Composer and Pro Tools. For existing Euphonix customers, Avid will continue to support EuCon– the Euphonix high-speed Ethernet protocol that enables its control surfaces to interface with third-party software.
The transaction is expected to close at the end of April.

Source: Avid Press Release

Do Avid want Euphonix to build future PT control surfaces? Is this flexing a little muscle to remove competition? Should users of control-surfaces on DAWs other than PT be worried about the longevity of their investments?

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1 - 20 of 21 Posts

Kirill

· #2 · Apr 15, 2010

I kind of hope they won't get the Euphonix. Cause those guys just started making there products much better then before and honestly Avid I think will spoil there business... Just thinking about that "Digidesign" got fully eaten up by them, same will happen in case if they buy Euphonix. Well that's my own opinion.

0bazooka_joe0

· #3 · Apr 15, 2010

I embrace the acquisition due to the compatibility of Euphonix's control surfaces with ProTools. Before that you either had to get a 002/003 or jump to a C24, icon.... theres no in between you know?

Kirill

· #4 · Apr 15, 2010

Well there is quite a lot of different Hardware interfaces out there to be honest. I never really liked neither 002/003 they got pretty nasty Preamps, unless you'd upgrade everything inside to a Black Lion components. And C24 is just a big mouse that's all it is. Unless you go to a more expensive ICON's. I'd rather use better consoles, instead of huge useless controller which mainly doesn't even have an on-board EQ at the least.

0bazooka_joe0

· #5 · Apr 15, 2010

I'm sure most people are on the same page as you, I know I am. However, not everyone has the budget or opportunity to work on a large scale console. It just offers PT users a different price range of control surface they didn't have before, which is nice.

Kirill

· #6 · Apr 15, 2010

I agree with you 0Bazooka_Joe0. What I was trying to say is that from my POV Avid will just choke that company same way as W-mart chokes good stores around it. Euphonix is a nice company, but I guess they sold out for some kind of offer from Avid. It's just sad to me. I moved more to Logic in a last 3-4 years. And I've been using PT for a long time as well. In fact I still do some work on PT from time to time, but I like Logic and Cubase muuuuuch more.

Kirill

· #7 · Apr 15, 2010

One thing though, we kind of drifted away from the Euphonix
:rofl2:

0bazooka_joe0

· #8 · Apr 15, 2010

You're right. They've gobbled up a fair amount of companies just recently. I don't really dig the whole corporate domination of the world. But most people don't, unless they're on the other end raking in all the dough.

Times, they are a changin' :hide:

spacedout

· #9 · Apr 15, 2010

Still, it might persuade Euphonix to finally release PC drivers for their Artist series hardware, since this takeover presumably means they won't be in Apple's pocket any longer...:T

Avid aren't the only ones of course - Harman International (I think that's what it's called) owns AKG, JBL, Crown, dbx, Lexicon, and a few others too :huh:

jeff68925

· #10 · Apr 16, 2010

First of all, I have to laugh at this news as the corporate dweeb I used to work for told me 3 years ago that Avid would be bankrupt in a year (he has been wrong about many other things as well costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars).

That being said, in the last 5 years, Avid's customer service has goon from average, not essentially non-existent. For that reason, I will never purchase another one of their products.

Jeff

0bazooka_joe0

· #11 · Apr 16, 2010

spacedout said:
Still, it might persuade Euphonix to finally release PC drivers for their Artist series hardware, since this takeover presumably means they won't be in Apple's pocket any longer...:T

Avid aren't the only ones of course - Harman International (I think that's what it's called) owns AKG, JBL, Crown, dbx, Lexicon, and a few others too :huh:

The only difference being that Harman International bought intelligently and invested in quality non-proprietary products and companies. Don't often hear complaints about DAE errors with a 414.:bigsmile:

Deep64

· #12 · Apr 16, 2010

Yes Spacedout, and sadly, when Harman brought AKG, they had Amek too, and they KILLED Amek, what a shame !!

- Chris -

spacedout

· #13 · Apr 16, 2010

Fair point - they do integrate their products (eg JBL actives with built-in Crown amps), but they're not all referred to as Harman... OTOH, I believe they have developed a proprietary protocol of sorts for live sound management, involving dbx speaker processors controlling compatible Crown amps, or something like that.

Didn't know about Amek :huh:

This is more about Avid's plans for world domination though - logic (ha!) would suggest that they'd now try to make their hardware compatible with as many platforms/DAWs as possible, so maybe we'll finally get PC drivers for their low-end stuff - the MC Mix looks tasty

Equilibrium8

· #14 · Apr 17, 2010

spacedout said:
This is more about Avid's plans for world domination though - logic (ha!) would suggest that they'd now try to make their hardware compatible with as many platforms/DAWs as possible, so maybe we'll finally get PC drivers for their low-end stuff - the MC Mix looks tasty

I wonder if compatibility is their goal. They could very well stop support for non-PT based DAW's. Then again the other AVID products are becoming more cross-DAW compatible.

Equilibrium8

· #15 · Apr 17, 2010

Deep64 said:
Yes Spacedout, and sadly, when Harman brought AKG, they had Amek too, and they KILLED Amek, what a shame !!

- Chris -

I can never figure out why companies do this. Gibson did the same with Opcode (And Oberheim, if I remember correctly) in the late 90's.

mbeckler

· #16 · Apr 21, 2010

I hope the surfaces won't be STRICTLY protools, though I heavily doubt it, you never know.
Apple, Apogee and Euphonix had the dream team, so I'm sort of disappointed to see this happen.

Ford.P

· #17 · Apr 21, 2010

Equilibrium8 said:
I can never figure out why companies do this. Gibson did the same with Opcode (And Oberheim, if I remember correctly) in the late 90's.

Well they clean up market space mostly for themselves. I wonder what is going to happen with MIDAS owned by Behringer and CADAC owned by SoundKing.
Yeah there's been quite some sad news recently...

BoogieBear

· #18 · Apr 21, 2010

There goes the neighbourhood!

I suppose this will be another attempt to buy up a smaller company with some great products and then destroy it to prevent opposition to the main product line

Frankly, I think it sucks!:foottap:

Cheers
Anton

planetnine

Discussion Starter · #19 · Apr 21, 2010

Ford.P said:
Well they clean up market space mostly for themselves. I wonder what is going to happen with MIDAS owned by Behringer and CADAC owned by SoundKing.
Yeah there's been quite some sad news recently...

I think I'm still in denial with this, the most prestigious live console manufacturer, bar none, bought out by the most budget manufacturer ever. Sounds like an April 1st announcement

Nathan

>

Ford.P

· #20 · Apr 23, 2010

planetnine said:
I think I'm still in denial with this, the most prestigious live console manufacturer, bar none, bought out by the most budget manufacturer ever. Sounds like an April 1st announcement

Nathan

>

Quite expensive April 1st joke. Considering whole page advertisement in magazines.... And CADAC story is more than a year old I think. Maybe thats why there is no movement around their almost finished digital desk....

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