Avid 2011 Annual Report Download - page 6

1
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
OVERVIEW
We are a leading provider of digital media content-creation products and solutions for audio, film, video, and broadcast
professionals, as well as artists and creative enthusiasts. Our audio and video solutions are designed to be extensions of the
people using them, so that they amplify creativity, speed production processes and provide the science behind the art of making
great creative experiences.
Our mission is to inspire passion, unleash creativity and enable our customers to realize their dreams in a digital world. We do
this by helping anyone with a passion for making music, movies, video and television, by providing both the technology and the
expertise that power those experiences.
Customers use our solutions to create the most listened to, most watched and loved media in the world. Around the globe, feature
films, primetime television shows, news programs, commercials, live performances and chart-topping music hits are made using
one or more of our solutions.
CORPORATE STRATEGY
We operate our business based on the following five customer-centric strategic principles:
• Drive customer success. We are committed to making each and every customer successful. Period. It's that simple.
• From enthusiasts to the enterprise. Whether performing live or telling a story to sharing a vision or broadcasting the
news - we create products to support our customers at all stages.
• Fluid, dependable workflows. Reliability. Flexibility. Ease of Use. High Performance. We provide best-in-class
workflows to make our customers more productive and competitive.
• Collaborative support. For the individual user, the workgroup, a community or the enterprise, we enable a collaborative
environment for success.
• Avid optimized in an open ecosystem. Our products are innovative, reliable, integrated and best-of-breed. We work in
partnership with a third-party community resulting in superior interoperability.
CUSTOMER MARKET SEGMENTS
We provide digital media content-creation products and solutions to customers in the three market segments below.
• Media Enterprises. This market segment consists of broadcast, government, sports and other organizations that acquire,
create, process, and/or distribute audio and video content to a large audience for communication, entertainment, analysis,
and/or forensic purposes. Customers in this segment rely on workflows that span content acquisition, creation, editing,
distribution, sales and redistribution, that utilize all content distribution platforms, including web, mobile, internet
protocol television, cable, satellite, on-air, and various other proprietary platforms. For this market segment, we offer a
wide range of innovative, open products and solutions including hardware- and software-based video- and audio-editing
tools, collaborative workflow and asset management solutions, and graphics-creation and automation tools, as well as
scalable media storage options. Our domain expertise also allows us to provide customers in this market segment with a
broad range of professional and consulting services. We sell into this market segment through our direct sales force and
resellers.
• Professionals and Post. This market segment is made up of individual artists and entities that create audio and video
media as a paid service, but who do not distribute media to end consumers on a large scale. This segment includes a
wide-ranging target audience that includes: students and teachers in career technical education programs in high schools,
colleges and universities, as well as in post-secondary vocational schools, that prepare students for professional media