CEO Miller interview, from Wallst2001 on Yahoo:
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SHOW: TRADING PLACES 10:00:00 am ET
February 5, 1999; Friday 11:41 am Eastern Time
LAUREN THIERRY, CNNfn ANCHOR, TRADING PLACES: Let's find out what's next for Avid Technology . Chairman and CEO Bill Miller joins us live from Boston.
Mr. Miller, hello. I almost feel like I know you, because if you're worked in the TV business you've probably pushed a button that says Avid on it. You're at $14.6 million for fourth quarter '98. Where did you get all the added revenue?
BILL MILLER, CEO, AVID TECHNOLOGY: The biggest part of the revenue came from new products that are opening up new markets for us. Avid has been dominated by editing equipment, we're the leader in that field. During the past year we've introduced 17 new products including this quarter, two major products called DS2.1 and the product we call Symphony. It's a big new opportunity for us. And that's played a big part -- it was a big reason why we were able to grow our revenue, the rest of our base business was strong as well.
THIERRY: You also formed a strategic alliance with one of your main competitors which is interesting, Techtronics, how is that going?
MILLER: That is an important deal. We made an alliance with Techtronic, it's going very well. Primarily to go after the broadcast news business. To put together the technologies that both companies have and to make use of the strong -- the broadcast marketplace, combine our technologies to deliver superior solutions as broadcast moves to digital broadcasting and computer-based broadcasting.
THIERRY: Avid had the technology, Techtronic had the distribution and you guys are joining forces on that.
MILLER: Techtronic had the distribution. We both had some technology. Avid had strong editing technology. Techtronic has been in the broadcast business for a long time, and the leading playback device in the marketplace. So it was a combination of things.
THIERRY: You also launch this, pardon me if my accent is in the wrong place, Cystimage. Those of us here in New York call it Softimage. Tell us the correct pronunciation and tell us what it is doing with Avid?
MILLER: It's based in Montreal. Softimage is the leading producer of 3-D animation and molding software, if you see things like "Godzilla", the monsters and a lot more effects that are more subtle get produced with Softimage 3-D software. In addition, Softimage has been developing a product and an architecture that we think is very interesting called digital studio that we just produced a new release of this past November. We believe that by combining audio technology that we have at Avid with protools, the editing technology, the 3-D technology and the digital studio that cyst image developed, we'll be able to make a powerful system.
THIERRY: It seems to me you're covering all of your basis because you're not just getting into the news editing which so many of us in television are familiar with. This is also what Hollywood film studios do as well. I imagine you're giving animation houses with soft imaging.
MILLER: You're most familiar with Avid in broadcasting, about 80 percent of the motion pictures that you see are also edited on Avid equipment and about 85 percent of the television prime time schedule is edited on Avid equipment.
THIERRY: I have to ask you one process and development question, and that is you are not reporting the net income at this time. There seems to be some discrepancy with what the SEC saying. Would any major adjustment affect the financial health of Avid?
MILLER: It has absolutely no effect on our financial position in our operations. It's purely an accounting issue. As you may know at the time we concluded the deal. We did the write-off on the basis that was accepted in the industry at the time. The SEC is generally raising questions about that and is talking, I guess, a lot of companies are caught in that discussion, but that's only affecting the book entries. It doesn't have anything to do with our cash flows.
THIERRY: Bill Miller, thank you very much for your time.
MILLER: Thanks. |
