MONTREAL—Grass Valley has announced that venture capital company Black Dragon Capital is acquiring GV from Belden Inc. The deal, which will be finalized during Q1 2020, will transfer full control of all Grass Valley assets to Black Dragon, which says it plans to leverage Grass Valley’s intellectual property and talent to drive innovation and lead the industry’s migration to a software-based future.
Belden announced last fall that it was selling Grass Valley, citing that a sale would "will simplify Belden’s portfolio and improve organic growth and revenue visibility.” Today, Grass said there woud be "no immediate changes" planned to the company’s operational management structure and Tim Shoulders will continue in his role as president.
Black Dragon is led by Louis Hernandez, Jr., former CEO of Avid.
“We see tremendous opportunity for transformation in the media technology market and believe that Grass Valley is in an ideal situation to lead the market through these changes, Hernandez said. “Under Belden’s leadership, the Grass Valley solutions portfolio has expanded and the business has developed a discipline that puts them in the upper quartile of the market in profitability. Black Dragon’s experience leading companies through digital transitions will allow Grass Valley to accelerate the next step in its evolution, bringing more innovative products to market faster.”
Black Dragon said it, sees Grass Valley as a platform to accelerate the industry’s move toward its digital future, increasing investment in technologies and systems that enable new software-based services and pay-as-you-go business models.
Black Dragon said it takes an “advisory approach” to the companies in which it invests, and delivers a series of proprietary tools, such as The Black Dragon Playbook, a set of guidelines to create sustainable, market-leading companies. Additionally, the firm has an extensive roster of advisors with a combined century-plus of experience in engineering, content creation, business management and technology leadership in the media space.
“Grass Valley has led the market in the transition from SDI to IP and has been diligently pivoting our product lines to cloud-based and SaaS solutions,” said Tim Shoulders, Grass Valley’s president. “Black Dragon brings the expertise and vision that will allow us to accelerate this transition to the benefit of our customers who are looking for more robust and flexible models for content production and delivery. We’re excited to bring our customers along with us on this journey.”
Grass Valley said its customers who are invested in current product lines will experience a seamless transition and that it maintains full control of the supply chain and operational systems to enable on-going support without disruption.
