/ 05.13.2010 12:00AM
Harmonic’s Omneon Acquisition Foretells Further Consolidation
BOSTON: Harmonic planned $274 million acquisition of
Omneon has positive implications for the professional media industry, Doug
Sheerer says.
“Regardless of Harmonic’s clear leadership position in encoding, they could
have still been viewed pretty narrowly as a solutions provider for only a
relatively small slice of the broadcast and professional work flow,” said Doug
Sheer of
D. I. S. Consulting in New
York. “With the addition of Omneon, they are able to greatly broaden their solutions
offerings in a very--no pun intended--harmonious way, that builds on their
already established strengths in the post-production part of their customers’
operations.”
Sheerer partnered with Strategy Analytics on an industry report examining the
acquisition. Harmonic announced last week it agreed to buy Omneon, the server
specialist in Silicon Valley. Omneon had sales of $105 million last year.
Harmonic’s revenue totaled $320 million.
The report “suggests that, in spite of strong synergies, there will still be
challenges for the new venture around issues such as developing common pricing
strategies, managing workforce evolution and meeting the changing expectations
of the customer base,” which is true of any such merger. It also suggests that
the outcome will lead to both companies playing “a leading role in the wider
industry consolidation which is expected as market recovery continues.”