A listed London group serving the content creation market has made a double US swoop.
The Vitec Group plc, headquartered in Richmond, West London, provides hardware products and software solutions to broadcasters, film studios and production and rental companies, as well as photographers, independent content creators and enterprises.
It designs, manufactures and distributes camera supports, video transmission systems and monitors, live streaming solutions, smartphone accessories, robotic camera systems, prompters, LED lighting, mobile power, bags and motion control, audio capture and noise reduction equipment.
Vitec employs around 1,600 people in 11 different countries, generated £300m revenue in 2020 and made £10m profit.
A £26 million deal for Lightstream is expected to be completed imminently. Lightstream develops cloud-based live production software to enable content creators, particularly gamers, to enrich their live video streams.
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It has strong strategic partnerships and technology integrations with the leading streaming and gaming platforms, including with Microsoft’s Xbox and Amazon’s Twitch. Its 22 employees and four co-founders, including CEO Stu Grubbs, will join Vitec.
Lightstream has 16,000 paying subscribers and made £1.4m revenues in 2020, with an EBITDA loss of £2m.
Quasar, which designs and develops linear LED lighting solutions for cine-style applications, has already joined the group in a £4.4m cash deal.
Based in Los Angeles, its products are used in professional, large-scale film and scripted TV production as well as small scale new media markets. It employs 18 people and its four co-founders will also join Vitec.
Revenue for the years to 31st December 2019 and 2020 was £6m and £2.7m respectively.
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“Lightstream is a world-leading live streaming software business. This acquisition enables Vitec to enter the substantial and fast-growing adjacent gaming market, adding innovative and complementary software for our live streaming customers and significantly expanding our customer reach,” said Stephen Bird, Group Chief Executive of Vitec.
“With Lightstream as part of the group, we will be able to address the growing demand for cloud-based content creation as well as more than doubling our recurring revenue stream.
“Quasar products are highly complementary to our Litepanels brand and this acquisition will enhance our position as a leading player in the growing LED lighting market.
“These acquisitions are an excellent strategic and technological fit, have great medium-term prospects and are expected to increase our underlying revenue CAGR.
“This is an exciting time for Vitec as we continue to increase our higher technology capabilities and expand our total addressable market. I am delighted to welcome both talented teams to the group.”