Avid Technology

Avid Technology, Inc.
Company type	Private
Traded as	Nasdaq: AVID
Industry	Computer software, Technology, Multimedia
Founded	August 1987; 36 years ago
Founder	Bill Warner
Headquarters	Burlington, Massachusetts, United States
Key people	Jeff Rosica (president & CEO)
Products	Pro Tools, Media Composer, Sibelius, Avid Play Avid VENUE, Avid NEXIS, MediaCentral, FastServe, MBOX Studio, Pro Tools Carbon, Pro Tools MTRX, Airspeed, Avid Maestro Graphics.
Revenue	US$417 million (2022)
Operating income	US$53.9 million (2022)
Net income	US$55.2 million (2022)
Total assets	US$287 million (2022)
Total equity	−US$119 million (2022)
Owner	Symphony Technology Group
Number of employees	1,485 (2022)
Website	avid.com
	Footnotes / references;

Avid Technology, Inc. is an American technology and multimedia company that develops digital non-linear editing (NLE) systems, video editing software, audio editing software, music notation software and management and distribution services. It is based in Burlington, Massachusetts, and was founded in August 1987 by Bill Warner.^[2]^[3]

Avid products are used in the television and video industry to create television shows, feature films, and commercials. Media Composer, a professional non-linear editing system, is Avid's flagship product.^[4]

History

Avid was founded by Bill Warner, a former marketing manager from Apollo Computer. A prototype of their first non-linear editing system, the Avid/1 Media Composer, was shown at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in April 1988. The Avid/1 was based on an Apple Macintosh II computer, with special hardware and software of Avid's design installed. The Avid/1 was "the biggest shake-up in editing since Melies played with time and sequences in the early 1900s".^[5] By the early 1990s, Avid products began to replace such tools as the Moviola, Steenbeck, and KEM flatbed editors, allowing editors to handle their film creations with greater ease. The first feature film edited using the Avid was Let's Kill All the Lawyers in 1992, directed by Ron Senkowski. The film was edited at a 30fps NTSC rate, then used Avid MediaMatch to generate a negative cutlist from the EDL.^[6]^[7] The first feature film edited natively at 24fps with what was to become the Avid Film Composer was Emerson Park. The first studio film to be edited at 24fps was Lost in Yonkers, directed by Martha Coolidge. By 1994 only three feature films used the new digital editing system. By 1995 dozens had switched to Avid, and it signaled the beginning of the end of cutting celluloid. In 1996 Walter Murch accepted the Academy Award for editing The English Patient (which also won best picture), which he cut on the Avid. This was the first Editing Oscar awarded to a digitally edited film (although the final print was still created with traditional negative cutting).^[8]

In 1994 Avid introduced Open Media Framework (OMF) as an open standard file format for sharing media and related metadata.

In the past, Avid released Avid Free DV, a free edition of Media Composer with limited functionality; Xpress DV, a consumer edition of Media Composer; and Xpress Pro, a prosumer edition of Media Composer. These editions were discontinued in 2008 as the flagship Media Composer was lowered in price.

On March 29, 1999, Avid Technology, Inc. adjusted the amount originally allocated to IPR&D and restated its third-quarter 1998 consolidated financial statements accordingly, considering the SEC's views.^[9]

In February 2018, Avid appointed Jeff Rosica as CEO, after terminating Louis Hernandez Jr, who was accused of workplace misconduct.^[10]

In May 2023, Reuters reported that Avid was exploring selling the company.^[11]

In August 2023, Avid Technology entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of STG for $1.4 billion,^[12] which was finalized three months later.^[13]

Awards

In 1993, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded Avid Technology and all of the company's initial employees with a technical Emmy award for Outstanding Engineering Development for the Avid Media Composer video editing system.^[14]^[15]

On March 21, 1999, at the 71st Academy Awards, Avid Technology Inc. was awarded an Oscar for the concept, system design and engineering of the Avid Film Composer for motion picture editing which was accepted by founder Bill Warner.^[16]

Acquisitions

Acquired	Company	Details	Sold
1994	EditDroid	A computerized analog non-linear editing (NLE) system which was developed by Lucasfilm spin-off company.^[17]
1993	DiVA Corporation	developer of Videoshop, Quicktime-based home video editing software
1994	Digidesign	developer of Pro Tools, digital audio workstation, and Venue, brand of digital mixing consoles
	Basys	ITN's newsroom computer and automation system (from Digital Equipment Corporation), then implemented into iNews in 2001
	Newsview	Novell-based newsroom computer system^{[clarification needed]}
1995	Elastic Reality, Inc.	developer of Elastic Reality, morphing software
1995	Parallax Software	developer of Matador, Illusion and Jester, ink-and-paint software
1998	Softimage	developer of Softimage\|3D, 3D graphics software (previously subsidiary of Microsoft)	2008 (to Autodesk)
1998	NewStar	strategic alliance Avstar with Grass Valley—then owners of Lightworks^{[clarification needed]}
2000	Motion Factory	developer of interactive 3D software for games and the Web^[18]
2000	Pluto Technology	DDR playback servers
2002	iKnowledge	developer of Active Content Manager, newsroom management software
2003	Rocket Networks	private sharing network technology for Internet collaboration, then implemented in Digidelivery, encrypted file transfer system^[19]	2007 (to Aspera)
2004	NXN	Media Asset Management software components
	Bomb Factory	audio plug-ins developer
	M-Audio	audio interfaces and equipment manufacturer	2012 (to inMusic)
2005	Pinnacle Systems	digital video hardware and software manufacturer	2012 (to Corel)
2005	Wizoo	virtual instrument, plug-in effect and sample library designer;^[20] developed AIR (Advanced Instrument Research), series of plug-ins and virtual instruments subsequently included in Pro Tools	2012 (to inMusic)
2006	Medéa Corporation	high-speed RAID storage manufacturer
	Sundance Digital	broadcast automation software
	Sibelius Software	developer of Sibelius, notation software
	Maximum Throughput	developer of MAXedit, visual effects editing software^[21]
2010	Blue Order Solutions AG	Media asset management software
2010	Euphonix	digital mixing console and control surface manufacturer; EuCon protocols were integrated into Pro Tools; the Artist Series and System 5 Family were added to Avid control surfaces
2012	Rocket Network	provides online music recording studios^[22]
2015	Orad Systems	developer of 3D real-time graphics and video servers products, then integrated into the MediaCentral Platform^[23]