Thomson Multimedia Completes Acquisition Of Professional Broadcast Activities Of Philips

Thomson Becomes No. 2 Worldwide In The Broadcast Solutions Market

16-Apr-01

Further to the preliminary agreement reached in December 2000 with Philips Royal Electronics, Thomson Multimedia announced that the acquisition of the professional broadcast activities of Philips has been completed. The five businesses of the Philips Professional Broadcast group include Cameras, Film Imaging, Signal Processing (Digital Production Switchers), Media Networking & Control (Routing & Switchers) , and the Philips Broadcast Systems Group. This acquisition will strengthen Thomson Digital Media Solutions (DMS) division, the fifth business segment focused on business-to-business solutions for broadcasters, content providers, network operators and advertisers aiming at deploying full digital video content solutions. Further to this acquisition, the new entity including the previous professional broadcast activities from Thomson broadcast systems, Philips Professional Broadcast will be called Thomson Multimedia Broadcast Solutions. Together with Nextream, a joint venture between Thomson and Alcatel dedicated to the highly growing interactive video market, Thomson Multimedia Broadcast Solutions will address end-to-end needs of the businesses which operate in the digital media chain. Thomson Multimedia Broadcast Solutions will be one of the pillars of DMS. Its mission is to enable our customers to transition at their own speed to a digital world, and to support them to increase revenues by providing state-of-the-art products, systems and services. Thomson Multimedia Broadcast Solutions had a proforma turnover of over 400 million Euros of sales in 2000 and employed 1600 people. The new entity is leader in its market in Europe and No. 2 worldwide. Marc Valentin, Vice President of Thomson Broadcast and Network Solutions said, ""Thomson Multimedia Broadcast Solutions fits perfectly with our Digital Media Solutions (DMS) strategy to address the immediate and future needs of the video content providers and the broadcast industry. Our organization will be market driven. To that extend, the integration of the sales and systems networks from Philips and Thomsonís broadcast activities gives us a significant edge, with a unique worldwide sales and system integration network present in more than 20 countries"". He concluded, ""Thanks to the synergies of our R&D teams, we will also be in a good position to provide the media industry and operators with server-based network architectures, and integrated digital solutions, creating a powerful end-to-end offering."" For more information about Thomson Multimedia, visit www.thomson-multimedia.com.

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