Francisco Partners Makes It Official, Finalizes Grass Valley Acquisition

Private equity firm Francisco Partners has finalized its acquisition of the Grass Valley Broadcast & Professional business from Technicolor. In July, the technology-focused firm made a $100 million binding offer to Technicolor, which had been attempting to sell the Grass Valley unit since Feb. 2009. As of Jan. 1, Grass Valley began doing business as an independent company, under the trade name “Grass Valley”.

Terms of the sale include 100% ownership of the current Grass Valley Broadcast & Professional business. This includes the camera, content repurposing, editing, master control, modular, news production, production automation, production switchers, routing, and video servers product lines including their entire product portfolios, the R&D centers and factories around the world, the Sales & Systems activities and Customer Support organization worldwide, as well as the management and administrative support functions dedicated to the business.

To help customers and technology partners to understand the specifics of the acquisition, Grass Valley has established a special website with the latest and most complete information. This site features a number of pertinent public documents including all published press releases, FAQs, an open letter from Grass Valley management, background information on Francisco Partners, and more. There’s also a special email address for questions or comments at [email protected].