Sonic Solutions
TypePublic (NASDAQ:SNIC)
IndustrySoftware
Founded1987 (1987)
Headquarters
Novato, California
Key people
Robert Doris, Founder, Chairman/President & CEO
Mary Sauer, Co-Founder
James A. Moorer, Co-Founder & CTO
ProductsSee complete products listing
Revenue$110.22 million USD (2009)
Number of employees
Approx 700 (December 2007)
Websiteroxio.com, qflix.com, cinemanow.com, divx.com

Sonic Solutions was an American computer software company headquartered in Novato, California. In addition to having a number of offices in the U.S., the company also maintained offices in Europe and Asia. It was acquired by Rovi Corporation in 2010.

History

Sonic Solutions was created by former Lucasfilm employees Robert Doris, Mary Sauer and scientist Andy Moorer who developed the SoundDroid digital audio editing system as part of the Droid Works project at the Lucasfilm Computer Division. (Another notable spinoff of the division is Pixar.)

Sonic developed and marketed The Sonic System, a professional non-linear digital audio workstation for music editing, restoration and CD preparation.

Sonic received an Emmy Award for technical achievement in 1996.[1] In the same year the company worked with numerous Hollywood studios and consumer electronic manufactures to introduce the first commercial DVD production system. Sonic extended its business to enterprise software areas with its DVD authoring systems for professional use (Sonic Scenarist and Sonic DVD Producer) as well as retail and PC OEM DVD software applications for home use (DVDit, MyDVD, and RecordNow).

In 2002, Sonic spun off their entire audio division as Sonic Studio, LLC, to concentrate solely on the DVD marketplace, enterprise software and licensing of IP and source code. Notable customers included Microsoft, Apple, Google, Adobe and Avid. Its middleware and embedded chip included deals with Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Scientific Atlanta/Cisco, Marvell, and Intel.

Sonic expanded to the consumer software business (photo, audio and video editing) in 2000, shipping roughly 50 million copies per year through direct web sales and over 15,000 retail store fronts including Apple Store, Walmart, Costco, Best Buy, Target, Dixon's and MediaMart. It grew to command a 64% market share in its category.

Since its IPO, the company has generated over $1.5 billion in revenue in the digital media category and has been named one of Forbes, Fortune and BusinessWeek's fastest growing companies on multiple occasions.

In 2005, Sonic began moving its consumer software business to a SAAS model.

By 2010 Sonic was one of the largest providers of premium movies via the Web and CE devices, in partnership with major movie studios. Sonic held the rights to the movies and provided cloud delivery as a white label provider.

Acquisitions

Sonic’s major acquisitions include the Desktop and Mobile Division (DMD) of VERITAS Software Corporation in 2002,[2] Roxio in 2003 (consumer applications for Windows and Mac OS),[3] and Simple Star (online slideshow creation)[4] and CinemaNow in 2008 (digital movie delivery).[5] In October 2010, the company acquired DivX Inc. in a $326 million stock and cash deal as the digital-media provider moves to enhance online video offerings.[6][7]

Sale

On December 23, 2010, Rovi Corporation announced its intention to acquire the company.[8] The sale was a cash stock deal for just under $1 billion. According to a February 2011 article in Business Insider, Sonic yielded the highest return of any publicly traded company on the NYSE or NASDAQ markets.[9] Both stocks rose on the deal announcement, creating a 66% premium above market. The acquisition was completed early the next year. In January 2012, Rovi announced that it would be selling the Roxio division and product line to Corel.[10]

Products

Consumer

Professional

References

  1. ↑ "Sonic Solutions NoNOISE Honored with Emmy Award; Recognized for Groundbreaking Digital Sound Restoration Product". Business Wire. 1996-10-02. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2009-12-27.
  2. ↑ Becker, Becker (November 13, 2002). "DVD software maker buys Veritas unit". CNET News.
  3. ↑ Haines, Lester (December 20, 2004). "Sonic buys Roxio software biz (But not Napster, which goes it alone)". The Register.
  4. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (April 29, 2008). "Sonic acquires Simple Star to expand multimedia sharing for Roxio". VentureBeat. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  5. ↑ C. Chmielewski, Dawn (November 19, 2008). "Sonic Solutions acquires CinemaNow". Los Angeles Times.
  6. ↑ Xu, Jodi (2010-06-02). "Sonic Acquires DivX For About $326 Million". The Wall Street Journal.
  7. ↑ Sonic Solutions (2010-10-17). "Sonic Completes DivX Acquisition". roxio.com. Archived from the original on 2011-01-04. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
  8. ↑ "Rovi to buy Sonic for $720 million". CNET.com. 2010-12-23. Archived from the original on 2014-03-05. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
  9. ↑ Mamta Badkar (2011-02-11). "Here's Our Feature On Stocks That Surged Over 1000% That Was Just Analyzed On CNBC". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  10. ↑ "Corel(R) Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Roxio(R) Business from Rovi Corporation". MarketWatch. January 12, 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-02-25. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
  11. ↑ Calonge, Juan (September 4, 2009). "Sonic Launches BD PowerStation Production Suite". Blu-ray.com.
  12. ↑ "Finally, Professional Blu-ray Production That's Affordable: under $2499!". Audio Intervisual Design. Archived from the original on 7 June 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  13. ↑ "MainConcept DV Codec 2.4.16". Free-codecs.com. May 5, 2005.
  14. ↑ Business Wire (January 17, 2007). "Sonic Scenarist World's First Authoring System to Support Warner Bros Total Hi Def Disc, Industry's Leading High Definition Authoring System to Streamline THD Disc Creation". Bloomberg. Novato, CA. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
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