Grass Valley (company)

Grass Valley (formerly known as Thomson Grass Valley and Grass Valley Group) is a manufacturer of television production and broadcasting equipment . Its product line includes cameras, live production switchers, replay and highlights products, media storage, editing, modular infrastructure, routing, conversion equipment, control, monitoring and automated playout, with solutions sold as hardware, software and SaaS. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, it was formed by the March 2014 merger of the Grass Valley with Miranda Technologies, which were both acquired by Belden in 2014 and 2012, respectively. In February 2018 Grass Valley acquired Snell Advanced Media (formerly known as Quantel and Snell Group). On July 2, 2020, Grass Valley announced the completion of its acquisition by private equity firm, Black Dragon Capital, from Belden Inc.

Grass Valley
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryBroadcasting
FoundedApril 7, 1959 (April 7, 1959)
HeadquartersMontreal, Quebec, Canada
Key people
Timothy Shoulders II, President; Sydney Lovely, SVP, Products & Technology; Christian Bernard, SVP, Operations; Tim Ordaz, SVP, Services & Support; Eve Dery Hodnett, VP Legal; Michael Cronk, VP, Core Technology; Chuck Meyer, CTO; Ian Fletcher, Chief Applications Designer; Neil Maycock, SVP Strategic Marketing.
ParentBlack Dragon Capital
Websitegrassvalley.com


History
Grass Valley camera in use on a sports outside broadcast

Grass Valley Group was founded as a research and development company in 1959 by Dr. Donald Hare in the small town of Grass Valley, California, in the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada range. Hare chose Grass Valley after learning about it from his friend, Charles Litton, Sr.. In 1964, Grass Valley demonstrated its first video product, a video distribution amplifier in a hotel room at the National Association of Broadcasters convention. By 1968, the Grass Valley Group had introduced its first production switcher, the flagship product that helped build the company's reputation.

The company merged with Tektronix in 1974, and was very successful for the next fifteen years. When Tektronix divested its printing, video and networking divisions it sold the video business to a private investor, Terry Gooding of San Diego, California, who reincorporated it under the name Grass Valley Group, Inc. The sale closed on September 24, 1999.

In 2002, the French electronics giant Thomson Multimedia, now known as Technicolor SA, acquired Grass Valley Group.[1] After coming under the ownership of Thomson, Grass Valley Group was forced to merge its product line with the existing professional and broadcast products of its new parent company.

In 2005, Grass Valley purchased Canopus Corporation, also adopting its video-editing software Edius. During the second half of the 2000s, Grass Valley made and sold the Edius NX video-editing and capture card, which offered special real-time video-restoration capabilities for composite video and especially VHS that had been ported from the ADVC-300, an external capture unit made by Canopus during the first half of the decade. Other than the original ADVC-300 unit that had been compatible with all kinds of capture software and all Microsoft Windows versions from Windows XP up to Windows 10, the Edius NX card only worked with Edius versions 3, 4, 5, 6, and 6.5, which only run on Windows XP. For newer versions of Edius, as of 2017 Grass Valley still offers legacy drivers for the Edius NX card for download on their official site, but provides no guarantee that the card will actually work with the newer versions of Edius.

After the financial crisis of 2008, Thomson defaulted on its financial covenants and was forced by its creditors to divest its Grass Valley business, PRN and other manufacturing entities. On January 29, 2009, Thomson announced that they were putting the Grass Valley division up for sale.[2]

In 2010, the Grass Valley business unit, not including the head-end and transmission businesses, was acquired by private equity firm Francisco Partners and resumed operating as an independent company with offices in San Francisco, California, on January 1, 2011.[3] The company announced in August 2013 it would move its headquarters to Hillsboro, Oregon, later that year to an existing office.[4]

On March 31, 2014, the company was acquired by Belden Inc. from Francisco Partners and merged with Miranda Technologies,[5] which Belden acquired on July 27, 2012.[6] The merged company operates as Grass Valley.

On October 30, 2019, Belden Inc. put Grass Valley up for sale, listing it as a "discontinued operation" on its books.[7]

On February 4, 2020, Black Dragon Capital signed a definitive agreement with Belden Inc. to acquire Grass Valley.[8] The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020, following the receipt of regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. More recently, Grass Valley logo is rendered without "A Belden Brand" byline, marking departure of company from Belden.

On July 2, 2020, Grass Valley announced the completion of its acquisition by private equity firm, Black Dragon Capital, from Belden Inc.[9]

References
  1. GVG History Timeline: 1959-2009 Retrieved 2014-03-10
  2. "Thomson to Sell Grass Valley". TV Technology. January 29, 2009. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
  3. "Francisco Partners Completes Acquisition of Grass Valley". tvtechnology.com. January 3, 2011. Archived from the original on January 6, 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-03.
  4. Rogoway, Mike (August 29, 2013). "Grass Valley, a video technology company with roots at Tektronix, moves HQ from San Francisco to Hillsboro". The Oregonian. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  5. "Belden Set To Acquire Grass Valley, Merge Ops With Miranda". sportsvideo.org. February 6, 2014. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  6. "Belden reveals why it bought Miranda". TV Technology. September 9, 2012. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  7. "Belden Selling Grass Valley". TV Technology. October 30, 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  8. "Belden Announces Definitive Agreement to Divest Grass Valley". BusinessWire. February 4, 2020. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  9. "Black Dragon completes Grass Valley acquisition". Advanced Television. 3 July 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2020.

Further reading
  • 2002. "Share the News Three New Systems from Grass Valley Group Are Intended to Facilitate Work Flow". Broadcasting & Cable. 132: 35.
  • 2001. "Equipment Purchase — French Manufacturer Thomson Multimedia Acquires Grass Valley Group". Broadcasting & Cable. 131: 12.
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