Avid has agreed to sell M-Audio brand keyboards, controllers, interfaces, speakers, digital DJ and other gear to inMusic.

This is part of the company's move to focus on its Media Enterprise and Post & Professional customers.

It appears that Avid's consumer audio and video product lines did not do as well as their professional products. So to avoid further loss, Avid decided to sell their consumer audio products to inMusic, the parent company of Alesis, Akai Professional and Numark, among others. All the M-Audio brand hardware will soon be under inMusic, including controllers, keyboards, interfaces, speakers, DJ gear and other audio equipment.

This streamlining of operation will let Avid focus more on further developing their popular Pro Tools line of software and hardware, along with associated devices like the Mbox and Fast Track.

Aside from letting go of M-Audio, Avid's consumer video editing products are being sold to a different company - Corel Corporation. The products that will be sold are Avid Studio, Pinaccle Studio and the Avid Studio App for the Apple iPad. All their legacy video capture products will also be transfered to Corel.

According to Avid, the divested product lines contributed approximately $91 million of Avid’s 2011 revenue of $677 million. Avid estimates that the proceeds from these transactions will be approximately $17 million, subject to closing inventory adjustment, with a portion held in escrow. Both transactions were closed on July 2, 2012.

Gary Greenfield, CEO of Avid stated that "The changes we are announcing today make Avid a more focused and agile company. By streamlining and simplifying operations, we expect to deliver improved financial performance and partner more closely with our enterprise and professional customers. Our objective remains to provide these customers with the innovative solutions that allow them to create the most listened to, most watched and most loved media in the world. I’m excited about our future prospects."

Many are saying that this is good news for Avid's professional customers, as they will be providing better and more focused services and products. Certain employees of Avid will be affected, and will be transferred to the acquiring company. Avid also announced that they will conduct further staffing reduction and restructuring, which will affect around 20% of their permanent employees. They are expecting to incur restructuring expenses that will amount to $19 to $23 million. Avid's cash balance as of March 31, 2012 was at $49.7 million, they will be utilizing the proceeds of the product line sales to offset most of the restructuring charges.

For more information, and for updates, you can visit Avid.

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