Dolby Laboratories has acquired Cinea, a start-up content-protection and anti-piracy technology company based in Virginia. The move continues a strategy by the audio company to move into the digital cinema marketplace via the development of high-quality video processing and compression products for both consumer and professional use.
Indeed, at the recent IBC conference in Amsterdam, Bill Jasper, president and CEO of Dolby, announced that the company had taken the word “audio” out of its current mission statement, and it recently hired two experienced video industry veterans in Thomas McMahon and David Schnuelle. After years at Microsoft, McMahon previously worked for DemograFX before Dolby bought the image compression company last year.
Under terms of Dolby’s latest acquisition, Cinea will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, with Cinea personnel and offices remaining in Virginia. Cinea CEO and founder Robert Schumann now becomes head of the new Dolby subsidiary, reporting to Tim Partridge, vice president of Dolby’s professional division.
For more information, visit: www.cinea.com and www.dolby.com.
