Avid has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wolftech Broadcast Solutions, a specialist in cloud-based multiplatform planning and publishing systems for news production.
Avid has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wolftech Broadcast Solutions, a specialist in cloud-based multiplatform planning and publishing systems for news production.
With a focus on news, sports and live production workflows, Avid aims to use this acquisition to combine its comprehensive digital media software with Wolftech's expertise in story-centric workflow management. The integration of Wolftech and Avid is intended to enable news organizations to rapidly deliver stories over multiple platforms, increasing efficiency and improving remote collaboration.
Avid and Wolftech are committed to openness and customer choice. Wolftech already integrates with a wide range of tools, including Avid MediaCentral, and will continue to build integrations with Avid applications as well as other platforms. In other words, with this acquisition, Avid will strengthen the integration between the two sets of tools while continuing to partner with many other media production tools and newsroom systems.
It is also anticipated that existing Wolftech customers will be able to take advantage of Avid's global scale for customer support and professional services.
Going forward, Avid sees the planned acquisition as an opportunity to develop a suite of integrated tools that will enable news production organizations to move past traditional divisions between their digital, broadcast and long-form teams to improve content. With the ability to amplify stories faster across any distribution platform, teams can can put more focus on the story, capturing a wider audience.
Another goal is increasing efficiency through sophisticated planning and analytics tools to make the most of existing resources. As resources include people, new web and mobile tools will be developed to help centralise communication, optimise team collaboration and increase interaction between the newsroom, remote and field operators.
Adopting new IT approaches, such as an integration engine, an open API and an AI framework, is also expected to help build and evolve modular workflows, from lens to edit and beyond, for more connected newsrooms.
Wellford Dillard, CEO of Avid Technology (right) and Arne Berven, CEO of Wolftech.
Wellford Dillard, CEO of Avid Technology, commented on the acquisition, "This acquisition strengthens Avid's position in the news market and underscores our commitment to empower news organizations to thrive in today's fast-paced digital landscape. Together, Avid and Wolftech will deliver innovative tools and workflows for news production teams that enable compelling, yet efficient, storytelling.”
Arne Berven, CEO of Wolftech, said, "Integrating Wolftech's multiplatform planning, collaboration and publishing capabilities with Avid's systems expands the capacity of news organizations to adapt to evolving audience demands and deliver high-quality content across digital platforms more efficiently." https://www.avid.com/
