Consolidation marches on. Looks like Avid may be bought...

[James Steele]

Saw this article pop up recently...

https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/reute ... thin-weeks

[mhschmieder]

Yep, I saw that yesterday via a regular email update from Mix Magazine, but forgot to post it, or maybe decided not to as it is so lacking in information. Hopefully we'll know more within the coming week.

Some of you know that during one of their consolidation phases, the Pro Tools team was pushed from San Francisco to Berkeley, a half block from my former employer's HQ. Poaching employees became a bit of a thing...

[bayswater]

Looking at it, they seem pretty “corporate” already. Does this make much difference?

[mhschmieder]

Hard to say. They had started farming stuff out to contracting firms overseas and not many were left in the core Pro Tools team. But of course there are other products, and video is a bigger cash cow than audio. Additionally, there's always the question of what happens to Sibelius. Although I've ceased caring about the latter as it is my least favorite notation program.

[James Steele]

Another article.... more speculation:

https://www.production-expert.com/produ ... -avid-sale

[mhschmieder]

Wow, I had somehow missed the connection to the Soundwide buyout and merger of NI, Plugin Alliance, iZotope. But as the author says, it is unlikely that Avid would be folded into such an entity.

Some great points in the article, and it was good to see alternatives listed, for the NI product family, as most of us need reliability and longevity. I had looked into Acon a few years back, but intend to buy SpectraLayers soon (not mentioned in the article, for some reason).

It's always sad to see SaaS pushed with no negatives mentioned. As I have said a gazillion times in feedback that is ignored by the companies supposedly soliciting input, only billionaires can afford SaaS across their entire suite of products. We often have specialty products where nothing else will do but don't need them often.

I suppose the assumption is that most people will be forced into a one to three vendor model, all subscription based. In my personal experience, once a vendor goes subscription, they mostly cease to innovate and also have little incentive to fix things or stay up to date in a timely fashion with platform upgrades.

None of this ever gets mentioned in news articles about subscription models. They only focus on how it helps the bottom line of the companies involved.

I was part of that debate back in the early 90's at Autodesk. I argued with the CEO that a subscription model will shut out well over 70% of our current client base of independent architects and civil engineers, and the response was that it didn't matter because they would be replaced by large corporation subscriptions across thousands of seats.

Matlab is another example of an application sales model that bankrupts people to the point of not being able to afford anything else, and I think this is deliberate, although from my aforementioned experience, the primary motivation was predictability of profits from quarter to quarter vs. the relative chaos of perpetual license renewals (often biannual).

[mhschmieder]

This article today about the closing of the sale of Avid to STG seems to be an example of how to say a lot without saying anything. The shareholders are happy, so I guess that's what counts.

https://www.mixonline.com/business/brea ... SmartBrief

[James Steele]

This article today about the closing of the sale of Avid to STG seems to be an example of how to say a lot without saying anything. The shareholders are happy, so I guess that's what counts.

https://www.mixonline.com/business/brea ... SmartBrief

Well, it says that they're going to be privately held now? That might not be a bad thing. I've heard that sometimes being publicly owned puts more pressure on you to generate dividends and often decisions are driven by short-term goals instead of taking the long outlook. I guess I don't know yet if this will be a good thing or a bad thing in the long run.

[mikehalloran]

It looks like I'll make some money on the deal—I added shares of AVID to my IRA a couple years ago.

The official buy offer when it closes will be $27.05 (November from the report I read). The current price is $26.67, about 1.5% lower. One would have to buy a lot of shares through a fixed price broker to make any money getting in right now. I can wait.

[mhschmieder]

Some on GS posted a hugely verbose article from another site, that said even less than the one I posted.

But James is right, that talking about going private is an important fact amidst what otherwise is word salad.

As someone who has worked in both public and private companies, I am fully aware of the positives and negatives of both. I agree with James that going private gives a bit more freedom to take the long view, but things aren't quite that simple, as so-called private companies often have stock and majority investors (that aren't the public "owners" or founders) and they can be pulling all sorts of strings (I have been in positions to see this happen). The main difference is in reporting, public accountability, and the related stockbrokers meetings that can unfortunately prioritize short-term quarterly gains.

[James Steele]

I share this because it may be amusing. I subscribe to this guy's channel. He's pretty hot under the collar about it. He IS assuming the worst. I'm trying to take a wait and see approach. But I do share this video as it would be nice if some of us chimed in in the comments regarding support for MOTU Digital Performer. I'm about to go do that now. It's a shame that as some people talk about leaving Pro Tools, Digital Performer isn't even on their radar.

[bayswater]

It's a shame that as some people talk about leaving Pro Tools, Digital Performer isn't even on their radar.

Odd that years ago they used to tell us that DP was a copy of PT.

[James Steele]

It's a shame that as some people talk about leaving Pro Tools, Digital Performer isn't even on their radar.

Odd that years ago they used to tell us that DP was a copy of PT.

Ha! I don't know if it's true... but I remember hearing rumor that (then) Digidesign hired a programmer or programmers away from MOTU that then worked on their MIDI implementation, which is why it feels similar. Again... this is RUMOR!! I don't know it for a fact at all.

[bayswater]

It's a shame that as some people talk about leaving Pro Tools, Digital Performer isn't even on their radar.

Odd that years ago they used to tell us that DP was a copy of PT.

Ha! I don't know if it's true... but I remember hearing rumor that (then) Digidesign hired a programmer or programmers away from MOTU that then worked on their MIDI implementation, which is why it feels similar. Again... this is RUMOR!! I don't know it for a fact at all.

I doubt that rumour, but I remember people commenting on the similarity of the layout, the support for the audio hardware, and the use of the multitrack tape metaphor in a lengthy discussion on the Cubase forum. I took all that as a positive thing.