Expanding its digital filmmaking operations in Europe, Technicolor has purchased Paris digital post house Duboi. Today's news followed an announcement last month in which Technicolor said it had taken over the post and digital-conversion operations of operations of French audio facilities Auditoriums de Joinville and Socià©tà© Industrielle de Sonorisation as well as digital conversion and DCP mastering house ScanLab. Like those companies, Duboi was owned by Paris-based Quinta Industries, which went bankrupt in December.
A total of 54 employees will be transferred in the purchase, Technicolor said. "We are proud to enter the French market for digital post-production and distribution and to put our skills and expertise at the service of the French cinema industry," Technicolor CEO Frà©dà©ric Rose said in a prepared statement last month. Technicolor also says it has created a six-studio film and television language versioning facility in France that went online earlier in 2012.
Late in 2011, Technicolor said performance of its entertainment services division were slightly below expectations, with weakness in the European economy reducing capital expenditures in the region. As a result, the company said, it planned to cut about 600 jobs worldwide in 2012.
L.A.-based FilmFunds, which purchased the 3D-conversion focused Duran Duboi US in December, was apparently a failed bidder for Duboi. The company has been asking visitors to its website to vote on which movies they'd like to see converted to 3D, with apparent plans to offer conversion services to the appropriate studios.
For more information: www.technicolor.com; www.filmfunds.com.
