Avid acquiring Pinnacle

[Digigenic]

Avid is acquiring Pinnacle, and all I can say is...look out.
The one thing this will do for Avid is allow them to bring a remarkably robust independent NLE system with a more appealing interface to a highly competitive market segment that they'd been overlooking, avoiding, and/or missing the mark on for some time.

 

[MarkG]

Personally I can't see them keeping Edition going as well as Xpress DV and Xpress Pro: they'd just be competing against themselves. Most likely they'll lift a few features from Edition (e.g. the background rendering for effects) and then let it die.

Also, I'd have to disagree about Edition's interface: I just find it horrible and unintuitive, full of meaningless icons. Avid's interface isn't exactly up to date with the 21st century, but at least I can guess where to look for the features I want, and it doesn't do stupid things like changing the default desktop colors while it's running.

 

[DerekEastham]

I have to agree with Mark.

Also, I'd say this is strictly about eliminating some of the competition. They may even come out with another version of the Avid Cinema software they used to make in the 90's... very low-grade consumer NLE, but easy to use & perfect for home movies... that's what I'd guess we'll end up seeing out of this.

 

[MarkG]

Actually, I could see them keeping Pinnacle's low-end products and selling them under the Pinnacle name, and possibly the high-end too, where it's fairly established in some markets (though again, competing against themselves wouldn't be a great business practice). It's the middle where I can't see any benefit to them keeping both.

 

[AhhDrJones]

$100 Bucks says the reason Avid Bought Pinnacle is to acquire the Title Deko Software and Post Deko Hardware which is very heavily used in broadcast and post production. Avid will now have a shoe into the broadcast titling market and will be able to add the deko functions into their new line of Media Composer, and Nitris Systems.