Avid Delisted from NASDAQ

News

by Tej BabraMarch 2^nd, 2014

Right on the heels of Avid’s news of successful films at BAFTA. The recent rumors of Avid not being able to make the NASDAQ requirements have come true. Avid, a long time industry standard for post production support, including Pro Tools and Media Composer, has been delisted from NASDAQ.

This sounds like doom and gloom for a once profitable and widely used company. However, times have changed and Avid has had competitors from Apple and Adobe eat away at their market share. Final Cut Pro X has had mixed reviews and acceptance, while Adobe appears to be running strong. With these changes in the market, Avid has been scrambling to change with them.

Over the past couple of years, Avid has been trying to re-structure their business, and focus on their core products. Avid has done well with dropping price and dropping support for legacy systems, as well as removing some hardware all together.

During this time, Avid has been focusing on their finical statements going as far back as 2009. Avid had determined that its financial statements from 2009 – 2011 required further investigation. As you can imagine with such a large company that would take a considerable amount of time. There have been thousands of transactions over the years.

The delisting came as no shock to anyone as Avid themselves noted back in January 2014 that it was unlikely to regain compliance with its SEC filings for continued listing of their stock on the NASDAQ.  Avid plans on finishing their investigation and re-submitting their financial statements with SEC filling as soon as possible.

Avid has been noted to say the company intends to complete the restatement and regain compliance with its SEC filing requirements. They are aiming for mid-2014 for completion. Avid intends to apply for prompt relisting on the NASDAQ Stock Market as soon as possible after regaining listing requirements.

Is this the end of Avid ? It’s far too early to tell. They may get bought out, they may finish their investigation, and come back stronger.  Their installed base in Hollywood and the broadcast industry is quite large. However, is it enough with giants like Adobe and Apple taking huge chucks out of their once dominated market?