This Story Posted:
May 7th, 1999

 
 

[2:45 PM]
Another Sign: Mac Powerhouse Acquires Company
In a major development in the world of video, Media 100 has announced it will acquire Terran Interactive. Details and financial arrangements were not disclosed. Terran will be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary, with marketing and distribution being handled by Media 100's marketing engine. Terran's products augment the product line of Media 100 with little redundancy, allowing Media 100 to target new markets like DVD authoring and Internet video development. According to Media 100:

Media 100 Inc., leading supplier of online digital video and effects systems, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Terran Interactive, Inc. of Los Gatos, California, the leading supplier of software tools for high-quality Internet and DVD video.

"The merger of Media 100 and Terran represents a great opportunity for the combined company, its customers and shareholders," said John Molinari, chief executive officer of Media 100. "Terran has grown rapidly since its founding in 1995 by supplying film studios, news organizations, game developers, video post-production houses and corporate website designers with tools for formatting and encoding high-quality video for playback from CDs, DVDs and websites. We see the trend to Internet video and DVD distribution accelerating, and see the combined company positioned to take advantage of this growth."

Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, president of Terran Interactive, said, "Terran products support all major video encoding and streaming architectures, including RealNetworks' RealVideo, Microsoft's Windows Media Technologies, Apple's QuickTime 4 and MPEG. Terran will continue to focus on these technologies and, as part of the combined company, will be able to dedicate more resources to the development of new capabilities in conjunction with its partners. We also plan to leverage Media 100's expertise in real-time video processing to introduce accelerated versions of Terran's products for faster and easier delivery of video on websites and DVD."

Molinari added, "We plan to operate Terran as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Media 100 headquartered in Los Gatos, California. We project results of the acquisition to be accretive within the first year of combined operations, and believe there are efficiencies to be gained in the areas of marketing, distribution and administration."

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including the completion of due diligence. The Company will treat the acquisition as a purchase for accounting purposes.

Congratulations to both companies!

The Mac Observer Spin: Another of the important signs of the health of the Mac market is the way companies grow. Acquisition is certainly a good sign as it shows that one strong company feels it can better grow by acquiring another. Acquisitions take financial health and confidence from all the involved investors, or at least most of the involved investors. All these factors only come together when a market is healthy.

Also, this should offer some great opportunities for both Terran and Media 100. these two companies are an excellent match and the combined companies should be able to seek more opportunities in the growing market they serve.

Lastly, one word: Avid. A stronger Media 100 will be in a better situation to take advantage of any hole left vacant by Avid's confusing stance about the Mac market.

Media 100 - Terran Interactive