Sonic to acquire Roxio

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

December 20, 2004

To All Sonic Stakeholders:

Today Sonic Solutions announced completion of the deal to acquire the consumer software division of Roxio. As the public announcement mentioned, we’ve acquired all of Roxio’s consumer software products including Roxio’s industry-renowned CD and DVD burning, authoring, photo and video editing applications, notably Easy Media Creator, PhotoSuite, VideoWave, Easy DVD Copy and Toast. We’ve acquired all related intellectual property, and all related trademarks, including the Roxio name itself. We did not acquire the Napster music business which remains in the hands of Roxio, Inc. (which is changing its name to Napster, Inc.).

We plan for “Roxio” to become Sonic’s premiere consumer software brand. Slightly more than 200 former Roxio employees have now joined Sonic, most of them moving into what used to be called our Desktop Products Group (“DTG”). The combined organization will now be called the Roxio Division of Sonic Solutions, and it will be headed by Dave Habiger, who previously headed DTG. Over the coming months, you should watch this group for exciting announcements as we combine two world class technology organizations and redefine the digital media landscape.

Sonic Corporate, our Advanced Technology Group and our Professional Products Group (including InterActual) as well as the Roxio Division will maintain all existing company locations and communications channels. Customers and suppliers should continue to communicate with their current engineering, sales and marketing contacts with regard to contracts, reporting, invoicing, payments, and other technical and administrative issues. Customers can continue to ship Roxio and Sonic products under their existing agreements. We do not expect this combination to impact any pending product developments or deliveries. For any questions with regards to the acquisition, please feel free to contact us at info@sonic.com.

The combination gives Sonic an extremely strong market position, an unbeatable portfolio of award-winning products, and excellent distribution in a number of channels, including OEM, e-tail and traditional retail. We hope that you share our excitement about this important milestone in Sonic’s history and we look forward to working with you as we bring the world’s leading digital media applications to market.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Doris

President



Press release here <http://www.sonic.com/pr/news/2004/december/roxio.asp>

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

>The formerly great have fallen.
>
>Sonic used to be the premier mastering tool, but it seems that they've
>pretty much abandoned that market for the broadcast networking market.
>And now they're getting into consumer products!

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Kurt Albershardt wrote:
> December 20, 2004
>
> To All Sonic Stakeholders:
>
> Today Sonic Solutions announced completion of the deal to acquire the
consumer software division of Roxio. As the public announcement
mentioned, we've acquired all of Roxio's consumer software products
including Roxio's industry-renowned CD and DVD burning, authoring,
photo and video editing applications, notably Easy Media Creator,
PhotoSuite, VideoWave, Easy DVD Copy and Toast. We've acquired all
related intellectual property, and all related trademarks, including
the Roxio name itself. We did not acquire the Napster music business
which remains in the hands of Roxio, Inc. (which is changing its name
to Napster, Inc.).
>


While you're at it, maybe you could fix some of the idiocy in that Easy
CD Creator. That thing uses the same user interface for data discs and
music discs. Why am I given the option of TAO vs DAO when copying
things like PowerPoint presentations? And what do burn speeds of 4x,
8x, 12x, etc. mean when associated with data files?

Fred