Editing and graphics equipment manufacturer Avid Technology has bought the German company NXN Software in a cash transaction worth around£24m, writes Farah Jifri.

Under the terms of the deal, NXN will operate as a subsidiary of Avid and maintain its headquarters in Munich. Gregor vom Scheidt, founder and chief executive of NXN, will stay on as a managing director for Avid.

Specifically designed for the entertainment and computer graphics industries, NXN's Alienbrain products have become the de facto standard for media management and are used by big name content creation outfits including Sony Pictures Imageworks, Electronic Arts and China Central Television.

The addition of the Alienbrain systems to Avid's product portfolio will expand the exist-ing DAM (Digital Asset Management) and production management features of its various content creation products. As a result, its broadcast, film, video post-production, and 3D animation customers will be able to track, store and control multiple file formats within a project.

Although it's too early to establish whether any new products will be launched from the Avid stable on the back of the NXN deal, Alienbrain products will be integrated into Avid's existing product line, the company revealed.

"Our broadcast clients will see the benefits longer term as we begin to integrate Alienbrain into our products. In the first instance, the benefits will be seen by 3D and graphics users," Graham Sharp, vice-president, European sales and operations for Avid Technology Europe told Broadcast.

The Alienbrain products are already supported by most major software packages such as Alias Maya, Alias StudioTools, Discreet 3ds max, and Adobe Photoshop as well as by a range of Softimage XSI software, and Avid has plans to integrate the technology into other applications over time.

In the meantime, products already planned in the NXN product roadmap such as

NXN Alienbrain Studio 7 and NXN Alienbrain VFX 2 are set to be released as scheduled and are expected to ship in the first quarter of this year.

NXN Software has fully owned subsidiaries in the US, UK, France and Japan and has an extensive reseller network. It employs a total of 70 people worldwide.

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