Contact: Rick Gaisser, Director, Investor Relations 978/640-3563
Email: Investor_Relations@avid.com
For Immediate Release
Avid Technology Announces Restructuring and Major New Web-Based Initiatives
Resizing of business plus new strategic initiatives for the Internet
aim to restore profitability to industry leader
TEWKSBURY, Mass. (November 10, 1999) -- Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID)
today announced a restructuring plan including new strategic initiatives focused
on the Internet and advanced work group solutions. The plan is expected to
result in annual cost savings of approximately $20 million, through staff
reductions of approximately 200 people, or 11% of its worldwide employee base.
The company plans to take a charge of between $9 and $10 million in the fourth
quarter in connection with the restructuring of its operations. In addition, the
company has planned significant reductions in discretionary spending in order to
support its new strategic initiatives.
As previously announced, the company is now operating under new management:
David A. Krall, newly appointed President and Chief Operating Officer, and
William L. Flaherty, Acting Chief Executive Officer. To lead a re-energized
sales effort, Chas Smith has been appointed Avid's Vice President of Worldwide
Sales and Marketing. Separately, the company announced that Robert M. Halperin
has been elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Halperin has been a
non-executive director of Avid since 1991.
Mr. Krall said, "An extensive evaluation of our marketplace and business
strategy confirms that substantial opportunities exist for Avid's industry
leading products. We are committed to enhancing the product offerings serving
our core markets on both the Macintosh and Windows NT platforms. We are doing so
with a structure that reflects significant cost reductions, yet in a way that
will benefit our customers. Targeting future growth, we have outlined focused,
achievable operational strategies in two areas where we can bring a distinct
competence - the Internet and advanced work group solutions."
In the Internet arena, Avid announced it plans to unveil a comprehensive editing
and publishing solution for the emerging Web broadcast market at the National
Association of Broadcasters Conference (NAB) in April, 2000. Said Mr. Krall, "We
are committed to playing a major role in the Web publishing and distribution
arenas by offering solutions across our product line to provide rich content
creation capabilities. Avid Xpress(TM) DV, which will be available in the first
quarter of next year, is our first step to specifically serve this market." In a
related initiative, on January 15, 2000, the company plans to launch a new Web
site that will provide interactive information and services to new media and
post-production professionals.
The Avid Unity(TM) shared storage solution has experienced high customer
interest and represents a significant market opportunity. "We believe Unity's
ability to serve many simultaneous high quality video streams at low cost gives
it
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the potential to be a key component of the edge server Internet infrastructure.
These same features in our core markets can make this product the shared storage
solution of choice in coming years," added Mr. Krall.
The advanced work group solutions initiative is designed to promote
interoperability of Avid products and develop open and integrated workflow
solutions. The evolution of Unity will play a key role as the work flow hub,
offering shared storage and services to multi-user configurations. The
initiative will also include tools, such as the soon to be released
DigiTranslator, that allow tighter integration of Digidesign Pro Tools(R)
software with Avid's traditional video line. Avid has also been a leader in
defining the Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) media interchange protocol for
film, television, and post-production professionals to exchange digital media
across multiple computing platforms.
Mr. Flaherty commented, "Today's actions are intended to enable Avid to return
to profitability and resume growing the business. Resizing expenses to meet
current revenues in our traditional core business is expected to achieve this
goal and allow us to continue to fund investments in areas for future growth.
Avid has been highly successful in penetrating the offline editing market served
by the Media Composer(R) and we have seen it mature, with softening of pricing
and margins. At the same time, we continue to see significant opportunities to
grow our share of the television on-line finishing and new media markets in the
near term."
The restructuring charge primarily reflects staff reductions at the company's
corporate headquarters in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, as well as sales and
marketing operations in the U.S. and Europe. The company also announced there
will be no further releases of a limited number of existing product offerings
including stand-alone Marquee(R) and Avid Cinema(R), as well as Media
Illusion(TM) and Matador(TM) (previously announced as a deal with Blue Software
Ltd. which was not completed).
Mr. Smith, who formerly served in a similar role for Digidesign, the audio
division of Avid, and brings extensive experience in sales and marketing to his
new role, said, "Avid's products are fabulous, but we recognize that we need to
get closer to our customers. To this end, next year, we will resume our annual
Avid Users' Group meeting."
The above includes forward-looking statements based on current expectations that
involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ
materially from those described therein, depending on such factors as are
described under "Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results" in the
Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for 1998 and Quarterly Report Form 10-Q for
September 30, 1999, filed with the SEC.
Avid Technology, Inc. is an international, industry-leading provider of digital
audio and video tools for information and entertainment applications. The
company's products are used by a variety of customers worldwide including film,
television and interactive content producers, TV news broadcasters, corporate
communicators, and consumers. For more information, visit Avid's website at
www.avid.com.
(C) 1999 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product specifications are
subject to change without notice. Avid, Avid Cinema, Digidesign, Marquee, Media
Composer and Pro Tools are registered trademarks and Avid Xpress, Avid Unity,
Media Illusion and Matador are trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. All other
trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
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