Business
Acquisition of Sonnox Limited
Acquisition of Sonnox Limited.
About this update from Focusrite Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n \n \n Strictly embargoed: 07.00, 20 December 2022\n \n \n \n \n Focusrite plc\n \n \n \n (\n \"\n Focusrite\n \" or\n \"\n the Group\")\n \n \n \n Acquisition of Sonnox Limited\n \n \n \n Focusrite plc (AIM: TUNE), the global music and audio products group supplying hardware and software used by professional and amateur musicians and the entertainment industry, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Sonnox Limited (\"Sonnox\"), a leading designer of audio processing software plug-ins for professional audio engineers.\n \n \n The total cash consideration to be paid for Sonnox is £9.1 million, which has approximately £2.1 million of cash, and will be funded from existing facilities with HSBC and NatWest. Following the acquisition, the enlarged Group will have net debt of approximately £13 million.\n \n \n For the year ended 31 March 2022, Sonnox's unaudited revenue was £2.4 million with profit before tax of £0.9 million, and gross assets of £3 million. The Board expects the acquisition to be earnings enhancing in the current financial year, excluding non-underlying transaction costs and amortisation of acquired intangibles.\n \n \n Based near Oxford, Sonnox is a well-established and acclaimed brand in the global audio industry. Its range of innovative, high quality, award-winning processing software is used in a wide range of audio applications including mixing for music production, live sound, broadcast, TV & Film, and even scientific and forensics projects.\n \n \n The business is wholly owned by Rod Densham, who was one of the co-founders of the \"Sony Oxford\" start-up that designed the legendary Oxford OXF-R3 for Sony Corporation. The console was installed in major recording studios worldwide and became widely accepted as the first 'musical' sounding digital console. As Digital Audio Workstations running on computers became the standard medium for audio to be recorded and edited, many hardware companies, including Sony, began porting their hardware signal processing to a \"plug-in\" format that could be utilized in these workstations. Rod led the team at Sony that ported their audio digital signal processing algorithms into plug-ins, which he then acquired from Sony in 2007 to form Sonnox. Since then, they have continued to build on the Sony Oxford heritage together with adding a range of Toolbox plug...