Grass Valley Finds a Home

Private equity firm makes binding offer for broadcast vendor

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/26/2010 5:39:55 PM

French conglomerate Technicolor announced that its Grass Valley broadcast equipment business, which has been up for sale since January 2009, may have finally found a new owner in Francisco Partners.

The San Francisco, Calif.-based private equity firm, which has nearly $5 billion under management and focuses on investments in technology-based companies, has made a binding offer to Technicolor to acquire 100% of the Grass Valley Broadcast & Professional business activities. That business includes the camera, content repurposing, editing, master control, modular, news production, production automation, routing, servers, storage and switching product lines, including their entire product portfolios, the R&D centers and factories around the world, sales and systems activities and customer support organization worldwide, as well as the management and administrative support functions dedicated to the business. 

The Nevada City, Calif.-based business would operate as "Grass Valley" going forward. Pending final agreement, regulatory approval and applicable notification requirements (and, when it is requested, the prior consultation of staff representatives), the companies say it is expected that the transaction can be completed before the end of 2010.

"We are excited about this opportunity, as Grass Valley's market leadership is clearly evident," said David Golob, partner at Francisco Partners, in a statement. "The business has an unrivalled brand identity and company heritage, a long history of innovation, team members that are dedicated to their customers' success, and an impressive product portfolio. We are looking forward to the opportunity to work closely with Grass Valley's management to create a company that leverages the strong entrepreneurial spirit within Grass Valley, allowing them to achieve even greater success."

"This is positive news for the company and our customers," added Jeff Rosica, SVP and head of the Grass Valley Broadcast & Professional business. "We are encouraged that we are taking a major step towards completing the divestiture process with this binding offer from Francisco Partners. The opportunity to be part of Francisco Partner's portfolio gives Grass Valley a solid foundation to continue to work tirelessly to maintain our core values of innovation, performance, and passion that have benefited our customers throughout the years. Our customers worldwide will continue to receive the high quality and service that they have come to expect from Grass Valley, with continued focus on raising the bar in our industry."

The deal does not include Technicolor's Transmission and Headend businesses, which are in the process of being separated from the Grass Valley Broadcast & Professional business in a reorganization which Technicolor announced in March. Technicolor says it will continue the planned divestiture of those businesses separately, and that the businesses plan to individually operate going forward.