Vitec Group Acquires Audix to Strengthen its Audio Division

Acquisition

by Jakub HanJanuary 14^th, 2022

Vitec Group acquires Audix, a professional audio equipment manufacturer from the US. Vitec, therefore, strengthens its audio division, and gets additional specialized R&D capabilities and manufacturing facilities. This should also help with growing existing Vitec audio brands, such as JOBY and Rycote.

Vitec Group is a global combine (listed on the London stock exchange) that currently includes many companies from the photography and filmmaking gear market. You might still remember one of many acquisition news articles that we published throughout the years – for instance, when Vitec acquired Syrp in 2019. Yes, the Vitec Group grows every year. I think it is safe to say that every single one of our readers owns equipment made by one of the companies of Vitec Group. In May 2020, we interviewed the CEO of Vitec Imaging Solutions, Marco Pezzana – you can check the interview here. The latest Vitec acquisition includes Audix, so let’s take a look at the details.

Vitec acquires Audix

In case you never heard of Audix, it is a US company specializing in professional audio equipment such as microphones, headphones, and accessories. Interestingly, Audix does the whole development, engineering, and manufacturing processes in-house in their facility in Portland, Oregon. It remains to be seen if that will change after the acquisition. Typically, Vitec leaves most of the processes to the acquired company and only takes care of distribution, but it depends on the agreement.

According to Vitec Group, the Audix acquisition accelerates and further strengthens Vitec’s audio capture strategy by bringing additional specialist R&D capabilities to enable the Group to design and build microphones in-house. The new Audix brand should complement Vitec’s existing audio brands such as JOBY and Rycote.

Vitec expects to grow the Audix brand by selling its products through Vitec’s global distribution network and strengthening its online sales. The Audix audio manufacturing facilities in the US will now belong to Vitec and that gives them the opportunity for a number of synergies. Vitec plans to move Rycote’s microphone manufacturing and engineering development to Audix’s facilities. The group also plans on bringing the development of JOBY microphones to the US. The Audix team and the facility in Oregon will become Vitec’s Audio R&D Centre of Excellence.

Do you have experience working with Audix products? How is the acquisition going to affect the customers in your opinion? Let us know in the comment section underneath the article.