A Sunnyvale - Sunnyvale Marriage: Harmonic has announced plans to purchase 100% of Omneon Video Systems
by Doug Sheer on 05/07/10
Seemingly a marriage made in heaven, the video-encoding vendor Harmonic announced an agreement to acquire privately held Omneon, a provider of video-production and play-out gear, including servers and storage solutions, in a deal worth about $274 million in cash and Harmonic stock.
What does this mean for them and for our industry? In part, it indicates that there are more than few companies with enough cash to buy out others, even very successful others. It also means that some well managed and often purchased equipment making companies can be very attractive to bigger and richer ones trawling for acquisitions.
Omneon has approximately 280 employees worldwide, and is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., with research and development facilities in Sunnyvale and Beaverton, Ore. Harmonic, also based in Sunnyvale, had 842 employees as of the end of 2009 and plans to San Jose this summer. Harmonic said there may be some redundancies between the two companies that will result in layoffs but that any staff reductions would be very minimal.
A company couldn't have been more attractive than Omneon, as our server and storage reports have confirmed. It has been on a run of success hardly dimmed by the recent recession. And, Harmonic has been also riding a wave of success, fueled by sustaining a leading position in encoding technology, as that D.I.S. report also affirms.
Together, under the Harmonic umbrella, the two companies represent the building of what will eventually be an even bigger and more attractive -- to end users -- aggregated group.
It makes us think of mergers and acquisitions past as well as perhaps those to come. Stay tuned.
-Doug
