Grass Valley Group Raises $36 Million Equity Investment From Lazard-Led GroupFunding to finance accelerated growth from new productsThe equity funding will provide capital for growth anticipated from the Grass Valley Group's new products, enabling the company to lengthen its lead in the broadcast market, make strategic acquisitions, and hasten its entry into new markets. In addition to the Lazard private equity affiliate, investors include Dr. Terence J. Gooding, executive chairman of the Grass Valley Group. Today's announcement comes amid a continued, sustained success for the Grass Valley Group's products. In late April, the company announced a three-year, $25 million strategic technology agreement with NBC to deploy Grass Valley solutions in support of the network's company-wide central casting, news production, media asset management, and high-definition playback efforts. "Customer enthusiasm for the company's new products is robust, with recent major orders from key digital media leaders such as NBC, DirecTV, Australian Broadcasting Corp., and France Telecom. This confirms our view that the Grass Valley Group is the premier supplier of digital media solutions to a broad array of end markets," said paul j. zepf, a managing director at lazard. "We believe that with its technology leadership, new product portfolio, strong presence around the world, and experienced management team, the Grass Valley Group is well-positioned for substantial growth over the next few years." Three-Year, $100M R&D Investment Keys Company SuccessOver the past three years, the Grass Valley Group has used a $100 million investment in research and development to completely revamp its switcher, server, router, and modular product lines. Through the acquisition of Vibrint Technologies in March 2000, the company has positioned itself to meet the pent-up demand for digital news production solutions. And it has leveraged its core video expertise to expand into new markets such as Internet video streaming and digital cinema. The Grass Valley Group has invested more than $100 million to extend its technology leadership and brand, and to deliver a completely new set of hardware, software, and new media technologies. The driving force behind this effort—and our on-going strategy to acquire complementary products and companies—is to satisfy the long-term needs of our customers," said Gooding. "The new equity investment will provide a source of capital for our growth and complementary strategic acquisitions. Further, we are pleased to have Lazard, with its strong presence in U.S. and international financial markets, as a leading investor in the Grass Valley Group." Market Momentum Grows For New, Flagship ProductsWith a completely updated product line, the Grass Valley Group is meeting the needs of broadcasters and other video professionals who are demanding greater workflow efficiencies, cost savings, and increased return on investment on their equipment purchases. In addition to the order from NBC, the company has recently garnered major orders from worldwide market leaders that include the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, CBS, China Central TV, DirecTV, Disney International, ESPN, FOX, France Telecom, Lucent Technologies, Merrill Lynch, National Mobile Television, the New York Stock Exchange, the New York Times Company, Paxson Communications, Primedia, Ten Network Australia, and Viacom/MTV Networks. Fueling this market momentum are next-generation technologies across all the Grass Valley Group's product lines. Over the past six months, the company has introduced eight new products, including the low-cost Zodiak™ video production switcher, the Grass Valley™ Media Area Network™ shared-storage system, the Aqua™ Internet encoder, a new platform for its Vibrint™ Digital News Production Workgroup, and a series of flexible, compact routers. These new products join the Grass Valley Group's strong line of market-leading solutions, which include the Emmy® award-winning Profile® line of digital video servers, which store more broadcast content than any other; the Kalypso™ Video Production Center, the number-one switcher in the broadcast market and the most powerful available; Grass Valley routers, which scale from a handful of crosspoints to millions; and Grass Valley modular products, which provide a step-wise transition to digital broadcasting and handle all major video and audio formats. Mindful that software will play an increasingly strategic role in digital media production and distribution, the Grass Valley Group also has key video-related applications in its product portfolio, including the ContentShare™ software platform, an eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based application for information access and exchange; NetCentral™ software, which uses the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to monitor the health of components in a broadcast or video production facility; and WebAble™ technology, which streamlines and simplifies the process of putting broadcast content on the Web. About The Grass Valley GroupThe Grass Valley Group knows more about high-quality video than anybody else—especially as video goes digital. The Internet. Digital cinema. Data-enhanced broadcasting. Interactive television. It's a world of Digicasting—one that demands Media Without Bounds™ solutions. Whether online or on the air, the Emmy® award-winning Grass Valley Group, a privately held digital media leader, has the hardware, software, and new media technologies to get content wherever it needs to go. For the latest Grass Valley Group product information, visit www.grassvalleygroup.com. About LazardLazard is a global investment bank, with offices in 15 countries worldwide and a prominent asset management business, which includes a wide range of alternative investment operations in international private equity, venture capital and hedge funds. # |
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