Grass Valley to be bought for $220 Million

ST. LOUIS—Belden said it has submitted a binding offer to purchase privately held Grass Valley for $220 million. The binding offer is subject to consultation with Grass Valley’s foreign labor works council. Grass Valley provides technologies including production switchers, cameras, servers, and editing solutions for broadcasters.

“Today is an exciting day for us at Grass Valley. Belden Inc. announced its intent to bring Grass Valley on board and combine it with Miranda,” Grass Valley’s announcement said. “Grass Valley will remain the name of the combined businesses.” 

Grass Valley, which started out in the eponymous California Gold Rush community, now has a home office in Hillsboro, Ore., and employs 942 people around the world. Operations will be headquartered in Montreal. A spokesman for Belden said it was too early in the process to address the question of cutting staff.

“Belden intends to utilize the joint Belden/Miranda/Grass Valley integration team to develop a detailed integration plan that best leverages the combined capabilities of the company. However, we are early in the process and it is too early to speculate on the number of affected positions. Belden is committed to keeping employees informed throughout the acquisition and integration process,” he said.

As for the product portfolios, the same goes:

“An integration team comprised of the product unit leaders, in conjunction with the executive team, will carefully review the portfolio of the combined entity and determine the future roadmaps. We will communicate on a timely basis regarding the portfolio,” he said. 

Belden will continue to use and promote the Grass Valley brand, the cachet of which was established in the 1970’s with the company’s introduction of a video switcher equipped with what essentially was a Mercury marauder shifter. The design redefined video switchers. 

“Upon completion of the acquisition, Belden will combine the Miranda and Grass Valley entities and go to market under the Grass Valley brand under the leadership of Miranda President Marco Lopez,” the spokesman said. 

Grass is being sold by San Francisco-based private equity firm Francisco Partners, which bought Grass in July of 2010 for $100 million. In January of 2013, the firm brought in Tim Thorsteinson to run the company, as he had in the 1990s when it was owned by Tektronix and sold to Thomson, which later became Technicolor. Bringing Thorsteinson generally is considered a divestiture signal, given his first gig with Grass and subsequent CEO roles at Leitch, which was sold to Harris on his guard, then Harris later was sold to investors for $2… [Keep reading…]

Source: TVTechnology.com