The Vitec Group said it acquired Amimon, a supplier of wireless video transmission hardware to customers including ARRI, Intel, SmallHD and Teradek, for $55 million in cash last week.
Amimon will be integrated into Vitec’s Creative Solutions division, Vitec said. The move brings Amimon’s technology into the fold with brands including Teradek, SmallHD and Paralinx, all three of which already use its chipsets in products including the Teradek Bolt and Sidekick lines.
“We have had a deep, collaborative relationship with Amimon since 2012, when we created a worldwide market for zero-delay wireless video,” said Nicol Verheem, founder of Teradek and CEO of Creative Solutions, in a prepared statement. “This acquisition is the logical step to enable the next generation of wireless video tools.”
Based in San Jose, CA, with an R&D facility in Israel, Amimon also markets hardware used by filmmakers for real-time wireless video transmission, including the Connex and Connex Mini drone vision systems and the StudioLink line of wireless HD Monitoring systems. It’s not yet clear what will happen to those products under Vitec’s leadership.
Vitec said Amimon GM and VP of Operations & R&D Tal Keren-Zvi and CTO and co-founder Zvi Reznic, along with “certain other employees,” are staying on to lead the team in Ra’anana, Israel, but didn’t specify how many of Amimon’s approximately 60 employees would be laid off in the acquisition.
Vitec didn’t specify how the acquisition will affect third parties for whom Amimon is a key supplier, including Aerialtronics, Arri, Intel, and Transvideo. In a press release, Vitex divulged plans to “quickly expand into the … on-location sports and news market, selling wireless video products to broadcasters and independent content creators” and to “get closer to [cinema] camera manufacturers through Amimon’s direct relationships.”
In the fiscal year ending December 31, 2017, Amimon lost $700,000 on gross revenue of $18.6 million, Vitec said.
Vitec Group: www.vitecgroup.com
