NAB Perspectives: DTS’s Skaaden on DTS-SRS Labs Acquisition

Following this morning’s significant announcement of DTS’s acquisition of SRS Labs, Geir Skaaden, SVP of products and platforms, DTS, spoke with SVG and supplied more detail on the deal.

He said the acquisition was driven by both companies’ need to combine their “complementary” technologies to achieve greater reach into both consumer and professional audio applications for both conventional broadcast and new-media channels.

“DTS has had a leadership position with respect to codec development, and SRS has extensive experience in postproduction processing technologies. These are complementary areas, and combining our assets — people, technology, and IP — we can accelerate the business.”

The two companies announced earlier that they had entered into a definitive agreement under which DTS will acquire all outstanding shares of SRS Labs in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at $9.50 per share, or approximately $148 million in aggregate equity value, including acquired net cash of approximately $38 million as of Dec. 31, 2011.

As a result of the transaction, DTS will expand its already sizable portfolio of audio-related intellectual property, with more than 1,000 registered and pending patents and trademarks. The combination is expected to fast-track the company’s expansion in the rapidly growing markets for mobile and other network-connected devices while providing significant operating, customer, and licensing cost-efficiencies.

Skaaden expects the acquisition to be finalized by the third quarter. It’s too early to predict when resulting new products will come to market, he said, adding that they will be “more-competitive solutions from a single entity.”