Avid Sells Softimage to Autodesk
Avid announced a $66 million third quarter loss on Thursday, along with a “reduction in workforce” (that is, a layoff), and the sale of Softimage’s 3D compositing applications to Autodesk. When one-time charges are excluded, the quarterly loss was much smaller.
The details are in this press release and this Yahoo news story.
It’s not surprising that Avid has to make changes like this in the current economy, and frankly, I never saw how the Softimage 3D applications really fit in with the company’s overall strategy. But there are some key questions that were left unanswered in these news stories, namely how big the layoff was, and who was let go. Also not clarified: what’s happening with Avid DS. It appears that Avid will continue to develop the DS product line, but the press release was pretty vague.
Avid paid $268 million for Softimage in 1998. This week the sale price was $35 mil.
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Splice Now 
October 27, 2008 at 7:55 pm
There’s quite a long thread about this over on the L-2 on Yahoo, prompted by my initial post titled, “Will Avid Survive?”
Lot’s of passioned responses. Here’s my take. When the tide is going out, all the ships sink lower.
Such is the case with Avid. In this current economic climate, it’s only a matter of time before they scrape the bottom. Regardless of how you try to spin this, it’s a defensive move.
Many people say that it was long overdue. I agree. Perhaps a better question to ask is what is their plan to save the core business? In the teeth of the worst economic situation of my lifetime, that’s a difficult question to answer.
mark
October 28, 2008 at 7:06 am
I agree. Whatever the plan is, getting rid of the fat is an important first step. Avid can’t be all things to all people. They’ve gotten way to spread out. The more they focus the better their chances.
October 29, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I’m surprise more isn’t being made of the recent press release describing Avid’s new agreement for engineering support and services with some Chinese firm. Makes you wonder how many Stateside engineers will be let go in the near future.