Private equity firm STG closes acquisition of music tech firm Avid in $1.4bn cash deal

It’s a finished deal.

Avid Expertise has formally been acquired by an affiliate of personal fairness agency Symphony Expertise Group (STG) in an all-cash transaction valued at roughly $1.4 billion.

Avid is the maker of well-liked music manufacturing software program Professional Instruments, which is broadly used within the recording trade. The corporate claims on its website that each file nominated for Report of the Yr on the 2022 Grammys was made with the assistance of Professional Instruments.

The acquisition was previously announced on August 9, 2023, and authorized by Avid stockholders on November 2, 2023.

Underneath the phrases of the merger settlement, stockholders of Avid (which beforehand traded on the Nasdaq)  will obtain $27.05 per share.

The large-money acquisition of Avid, one of many world’s most distinguished makers {of professional} music-making software program, arrives amid the non-public fairness sector’s continued interest within the music know-how house.

As lately as the primary week of August, a number of traders had been vying to purchase Avid, amongst them Francisco Companions, the non-public fairness agency that acquired Berlin-based music tech firm Native Instruments in 2021, and Kobalt Music Group in 2022.

Because of the completion of this transaction, Avid widespread inventory will stop buying and selling previous to the opening of buying and selling on November 7, 2023, and can now not be listed on the Nasdaq Inventory Market.

Avid now will function as a privately-held firm and stay headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Along with music manufacturing software program Professional Instruments, Avid makes Dwell sound software program Avid VENUE and music notation software program AudioScore.

Avid additionally operates a DIY music distribution service referred to as AvidPlay Music Distribution, which distributes music to over 150 main platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal.

“By changing into a personal firm, we consider Avid will be capable of obtain the velocity of innovation, scale and efficiency required for us to proceed main the trade ahead.”

Jeff Rosica, Avid

“By changing into a personal firm, we consider Avid will be capable of obtain the velocity of innovation, scale and efficiency required for us to proceed main the trade ahead,” mentioned Jeff Rosica, Avid’s Chief Government Officer and President.

“Mixed with their vital operational and monetary assets, STG brings deep funding expertise within the know-how sector that may speed up the achievement of Avid’s strategic imaginative and prescient, constructing on the momentum of our profitable ongoing transformation achieved over the previous a number of years.”

“We’re excited to start the subsequent section of Avid’s journey. Avid’s options are integral to content material creation and administration workflows throughout the movie, tv and music markets.”

 William Chisholm, STG

William Chisholm, Managing Companion, and Patrick Fouhy, Principal, of STG, mentioned: “We’re excited to start the subsequent section of Avid’s journey. Avid’s options are integral to content material creation and administration workflows throughout the movie, tv and music markets.

“Constructing on Avid’s established management place, we look ahead to accelerating Avid’s development trajectory by means of a deep give attention to innovation and delivering enhanced buyer worth.”Music Enterprise Worldwide