What’s this? inWho? You remember when I used to joke about Numakailesis? That’s who inMusic is now – a new umbrella company for the Numark, Akai, Alesis, ION, Alto, MixMeister and Sonivox. And now they’ve stepped up to Avid and bought the M-Audio brand, as well as the AIR software group that makes instruments and plugins for Pro Tools.
But it would appear that Avid are having to offload bits of the business, and at the same time ditch 20% of their global workforce. Not good news for some people then
Here’s the PR, got off the brand new inMusic press:
Jack O’Donnell announces the acquisition of AIR Software Group and M-Audio from Avid
inMusic, newly formed parent company of Akai Professional, Alesis, Alto Professional, ION Audio, Numark, and Sonivox, bolsters its commitment to music production and performance with the addition of two world-class brands.
Cumberland, R.I. (July 2, 2012) – Today, inMusic announced the acquisition of two product lines from Avid. inMusic will add the AIR Software Group, a cutting-edge audio software and technology development team, and M-Audio, the world’s largest manufacturer of keyboard controllers and a category leader in studio monitors and computer recording tools for musicians.
Through these deals, the AIR Software Group and M-Audio will join a family of premier brands that includes Akai Professional, Alesis, Alto Professional, ION Audio, Numark, plus another recent addition, Sonivox, a developer of innovative virtual instruments, acquired earlier this year.
Based in Germany, the AIR Software Group started as Wizoo Sound Design, one of the earliest pioneers in virtual instrument technology, and was acquired by Avid in 2005. The AIR team develops a number of specialized effects plug-ins for Avid’s Pro Tools software, the de facto standard for professional audio production across the music, film, and television industries. The AIR team has also developed a suite of award-winning virtual instruments specifically for Pro Tools. The group has a number of groundbreaking new products in development, many of which will be showcased and released in the latter half of 2012.
Previously a part of Avid, M-Audio is a leading provider of digital audio and MIDI solutions for electronic musicians and audio professionals. Since 1988, M-Audio has continually provided musicians with innovative and creative products. From their acclaimed MIDI and audio interfaces to their wildly popular keyboard controllers, M- Audio’s products have become studio and stage mainstays, giving musicians broad access to the latest in music creation and performance technology.
“By acquiring the AIR Software Group and M-Audio, we’re not only broadening but also deepening our commitment to the future of music creation and production,” said Jack O’Donnell, owner and CEO, inMusic. “All of our brands are technology leaders, and they all have tremendous market momentum. With the addition of AIR and M-Audio, we’re in an even better position to push the boundaries of computer-based composition, production, and performance. Naturally this will be very positive for musicians, who will get better software, better hardware, and a much more integrated music-making experience as a result.”
The acquisitions also signal a new relationship with Avid. The AIR Software Group will continue to develop and maintain technologies for the Avid Pro Tools family of digital audio workstations, and a number of M-Audio products will continue to include Pro Tools software. Select Akai Professional and Alesis products will also now include Pro Tools, bringing the leading professional production software to a whole new audience of musicians, producers, and engineers.
M-Audio and the AIR Software Group will dovetail with Akai Professional, Alesis, and Numark in many key areas, including product development, engineering, and distribution. This synergy will bolster the product offerings and technological leadership of all five brands, giving musicians an array of instruments unprecedented in both capability and value. M-Audio and the AIR Software Group will join the other brands at the Summer NAMM Show in July and will debut a number of innovative new products at the show.
About AIR Software Group
Based in Germany, the AIR Software Group started as Wizoo Sound Design, one of the earliest pioneers in virtual instrument technology, and was acquired by Avid Technology in 2005. The AIR team is responsible for the core of much of the effects offerings in Avid’s Pro Tools software, the de facto standard for professional music production across the music, film, and television industries. The AIR team has also developed a suite of award-winning virtual instruments specifically for Pro Tools. The group has a number of groundbreaking new products in development, many of which will be showcased and released in the latter half of 2012.About M-AUDIO
Previously a part of Avid Technology, is a leading provider of digital audio and MIDI solutions for electronic musicians and audio professionals. Since 1988, M-Audio has continually provided musicians with innovative and creative products. From their acclaimed MIDI and audio interfaces to their wildly popular keyboard controllers, M-Audio’s products have become studio and stage mainstays, giving musicians broad access to the latest in music creation and performance
technology.About inMusic
inMusic is the new parent company for a family of premier brands that includes AIR Software Group, Akai Professional, Alesis, Alto Professional, ION Audio, M-Audio, MixMeister, Numark, and Sonivox. Committed to pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo, each of inMusic’s brands is a leader in its industry, providing cutting-edge products that both incorporate and build upon the latest in engineering, design, and technology. www.inmusicbrands.com
Yay go inMusic. But this is Avid’s somewhat less positive side of the story:
Avid Divests Consumer Businesses and Streamlines Operations
BURLINGTON, MA, 2012-07-02
Today Avid® (NASDAQ: AVID) initiated a series of strategic actions to focus the company on its Media Enterprise and Post & Professional customers and to drive improved operating performance. As part of these actions, the company is divesting its consumer businesses. With these changes, Avid will concentrate on core markets where its deep domain expertise, track record of technical innovation, and strong brand offer the greatest opportunity for success.
“The changes we are announcing today make Avid a more focused and agile company,” said Gary Greenfield, CEO of Avid. “By streamlining and simplifying operations, we expect to deliver improved financial performance and partner more closely with our enterprise and professional customers. Our objective remains to provide these customers with the innovative solutions that allow them to create the most listened to, most watched and most loved media in the world. I’m excited about our future prospects.”
Avid has agreed to sell its consumer audio and video product lines. The company’s consumer audio products are being sold to inMusic, the parent company of Akai Professional, Alesis and Numark, among others. Headquartered in Cumberland, Rhode Island, inMusic’s brands are best known for producing innovative products for music production, performance and DJing. The products involved in this transaction include M-Audio brand keyboards, controllers, interfaces, speakers and digital DJ equipment and other product lines. Avid will continue to develop and sell its industry-leading Pro Tools® line of software and hardware, as well as associated I/O devices including Mbox and Fast Track.
Separately, the company’s consumer video editing line is being sold to Corel Corporation, a consumer software company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. The products involved in this transaction include Avid Studio, Pinnacle Studio, and the Avid Studio App for the Apple iPad®, as well as other legacy video capture products.
The divested product lines contributed approximately $91 million of Avid’s 2011 revenue of $677 million. As part of the transactions, certain employees of Avid will transfer to each acquiring company. Avid estimates that the proceeds from these transactions will be approximately $17 million, subject to closing inventory adjustment, with a portion held in escrow. Both transactions are expected to close today, July 2, 2012.
Avid also plans to reduce the number of its employees as it streamlines operations, with approximately 20% of its permanent employee base impacted by the divestitures and headcount reduction plans. The company currently expects to incur a restructuring charge of approximately $19 to $23 million related to these actions and other associated measures.
The company’s cash balance on March 31, 2012 was $49.7 million. The proceeds from the sale of these product lines should offset most of the restructuring charges paid in 2012.
Ouch – 20% layoffs. That’s quite harsh.
So another week, and another announcement of a company or brand getting snapped up. And it would be remiss of me not to mention that said snapping up is being done by either The Music Group aka Behringer, or inMusic, formerly Numark. Looks like Uli Behringer and Jack O’Donnell are flexing their business muscles a little right now, even if it is in slightly different business areas.
What this means for existing M-Audio products is unclear. Despite our happiness with Torq 2, it has failed to make even a tiny dent in the market, and I suspect that those X MIDI controllers will almost certainly be sent to that MIDI museum in the sky as well. But when you look at the M-Audio range and compare it to Akai and Alesis, there’s a lot of crossover. It’ll be interesting to see where the rationalisation is, and if Torq continues to be developed in-house. Numark tried their own rebranded version of VDJ called Cue for a while. Perhaps this is the opportunity they’ve been waiting for.
I’ll try and get a better picture over the coming days.
Numakailesisairionaudiomeistervox?
That would be a long business card, and a crap t-shirt.
Indeed!
I would wear that t-shirt!
Very interesting. I wouldn’t be suprised if Numark used the engineers from Avid to produce a quality software that would be offered as a plug and play with their products. Torq is a good software but M-Audio never seemed to be serious about providing any kind of hardware solutions for it that were’t toyish at best. I owned both connectiv and the xponent for a time…..both were problem childs. I tried out Torq 2.0 but was told in order to do time code I would need the connectiv. Downside of that compared to my Audio 8 is there is no recording capability on live mixes wth Connectiv. Should be interesting to see what all these brilliant minds come up with!
Olegiezer, you can use Torq 2.0 with an audio 8 & timecode, I already do so & have been for sometime!
Torq is great, lets hope they keep it going. I’m starting to get to grips with Traktor at the moment. I find it alot more user friendly than Serato.
There’s still a few Torq users out there if anyone from inMusic is watching1 :D
I’m totally with you, my only gripe currently with Torq 2.x running through an Audio 10 is that it’s not easy to record sets. I love Traktor, don’t get me wrong, but it’s nowhere near the reliability of Torq on my 2008 macbook. By that I mean that Traktor in it’s current incarnation is unusable professionally (cpu is in the red 70% of the time and 2.1 was only marginally better), and Torq runs in 4 deck mode with samples running, every effect on, even internal mixing at 96khz 128 sample rate at maybe 40% cpu usage. I hope inMusic takes the necessary steps to give Torq a fighting chance, higher res waveforms (color?), Traktor-ish assignable fx banks, and an extra record input for recording with an external setup would be nice, but honestly a version of the NS6/4-trak that is designed for 1-1 with Torq would be sweet. Also probably worth the extra money it would cost since not many units would move, but I already have the audio interface and so do most people. It’s hard to tell what is going to come of all this, but I hope it is a step forward and not the end of M-audio, their products have been great, but it has always seemed that their focus was elsewhere.
Allow me to pose this question – given the partnerships they already have with the industry leaders of NI and Serato, what do you feel would be the benefit in inMusic developing Torq any further?
Well, any work you do today you don’t have to do tomorrow (as we well know, right?!) – so unless the guys under the inMusic umbrella have no interest whatsoever in developing computer software there’s only value in continuing to develop it. Especially considering the way that what ‘DJing’ is is so in the air right now, Akai have a software division, and are working with Izotope…
Speed.
Currently, if Numark releases a new controller they have to approach Serato, NI, VDJ, PCDJ or whoever to get it to work and be supported out of box with the software or arrange for bundling. This would basically allow them to bundle their own software and move on.
However, given their track record of buying a product and then letting it die slowly – ala MixMeister, Arkaos Grand VJ, etc – I’m a bit worried about the longevity of Torq. If they actually keep the product up and push the envelope I suspect that Torq could be making some inroads in the near future… and giving both Serato and NI a run for their money.
Possibly as a fallback plan? Serato is already hardware locked and makes manufacturers jump through hoops, and there is some indication that NI may be thinking of moving in that direction too… If those trends continue they may be happy to have a solid piece of their own software out there.
Numark or any other hardware manufacturer won’t bother making anything for traktor anymore. They are now in direct competition with each other.
As for this acquisition, hopefully we’ll get some decent production controllers back on the market but M Audios DJ range was very limited. At best I think you’ll find torq thrown in with the Numark controllers to start with. Maybe next year we’ll see something serious.
Just my opinion.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see something new, or be an offshoot of the Akai production arm. Pro-Tools has already been getting set up to not require a $15,000 mixing desk to use to its full potential, and having a historically epic producer arm in Akai now adds more fuel to the fire.
This could definitely move things toward a heavily closed loop, for sure. M-Audio/Akai Software release a DJ software that connects directly into Pro-Tools, Numark and Akai release hardware that communicates directly with that DJ software AND production software (a badass Apc40 upgrade that fits in both a DJ and production workflow), etc. etc..
While I’d like to say that building all of this could create a really powerful competitor for Native Instruments, but the stark reality is that NI is still one company, and this is 9. They may be owned by the same parent but they are not the same company, and by proxy won’t have the necessary ease of communication.
That being said there is a lot of hope one could hold onto for another real competitor to enter the market and kick the established guys in the ass. I don’t want to see Serato and NI shut down at all, but the more competition the better the products we get :)