Major investor of Native Instruments and iZotope bids to acquire AVID
US firm Francisco Partners became a major investor of Native Instruments and iZotope in January, taking over from German EMH Partners.
Image: Avid
US firm Francisco Partners, a major investor of Native Instruments and iZotope, is among private equity firms competing to acquire AVID, otherwise known as Avid Technology Inc.
Earlier this year, Francisco Partners backed up the new partnership with iZotope and Native Instruments, which saw the two manufacturers team up to “shape the future of music making and audio production”.
Another company that is currently bidding for acquisition of AVID is Symphony Technology Group, a private-equity firm focused on technology investments. Earlier in the year, STG made a deal to take Momentive Global Inc, the parent company of SurveyMonkey.
AVID provides valuable software for the music industry, owning both digital audio workstation Pro Tools and music notation software Sibelius. Its products are widely considered to be industry standard, with Pro Tools likely the most used digital audio workstation in the world.
Sibelius is also one of the most commonly used scoring softwares in the composition world, and counts the likes of Hans Zimmer among its users.
Therefore, the potential purchase is a monumental move, especially considering that AVID has a current value of $1.2 billion.
According to Reuters, AVID started exploring options, including the sale of the company with the help of investment bank Goldman Sachs, earlier this year. Anonymous sources have since told Reuters that a deal could be signed as early as this month.
