AMX to be Acquired!

Reese Jacobs

Hi all,

AMX announced today that it is being acquired by a venture capital/holding company based in Chicago. See the AMX web site press announcements section for details. The acquiring company is Duchossois (see www.duchtec.com).

Reese

Spire_Jeff

This could be good news or bad... hopefully its good, but obviously only time will tell. I'm crossing my fingers hoping for good.

Jeff

shr00m-dew

I'm thinking good. They appear to acquire companies that when combined with other companies can make even more money. Doesn't appear that they want to change anything with AMX. Acquiring other companies in a verticle or horizontal maner results in decreased costs and a wider selection of products.

I'm just hoping we see the decreased costs in addition to the wider selection..

Kevin D.

DHawthorne

Of course the announcement put the aquistion in the best possible light, but it really does look like a good thing from where I'm sitting. The have no intent to change the operations core (or the name, thank fully...still wincing over that Panja thing), and dramatically increased the stock value. THis will insure AMX can stay on the cutting edge of development and marketing. As long as it really goes that way, and they don't start fiddling with thing just to improve margins, this can't be bad at all.

Spire_Jeff

Originally posted by DHawthorne
As long as it really goes that way, and they don't start fiddling with thing just to improve margins, this can't be bad at all.

That's the only thing that concerns me.... I tend to be a tad bit skeptical when it comes to believing everything in a press release. I'm kind of a hope for the best, plan for the worst sort of person. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see them fill out their use interface offerings in the $300ish- $1500ish range. I'd love to see the kickstand bundled with the MVPs or at least have the cost reflect the perceived value a little closer. But I also worry that two months down the road they announce that they're moving to a Windows CE based touchpanel in order to reduce costs. But, that's just me.

Jeff

Thomas Hayes

I hope this is a good thing also. The only problem is AMX seems to have the worst timing for such things that I have ever seen. Last year around this time we were working out a deal with them and it just stalled for a while and I was not able to get any answers from our distributer here in Canada. So my director got tired of waiting and decided to go Cre***** last year. A few weeks after this we learned that White-Radio was no longer the dealer and was replaced by techni-contact and our deal was pretty much okayed(TOO LATE! purchasing had already bought the other product). Last week we just released an RFI for our University to see who is able to offer us the best possible deal and yesterday I hear AMX is sold. I hope that AMX will take an invested interest in our RFI and help out AMX Canada with a sweet proposal !! Just a FYI that last year was a quiet year and we only installed 19 fully equipped new multimedia rooms. Consisting of several PRO2($$$) and MP2E's.
P.S DON'T MESS WITH THE NAME and as little as possible with the product, unless your making it better of course.

Reese Jacobs

AMX to be Acquired!

I think we have to assume that since Duchossois paid a premium for AMX that the intent is to make the company stronger and more viable. Otherwise, they wasted a lot of money on the purchase and that does not seem to be a trademark of that company. They seem to have a successful track record of purchasing companies and making them better.

Will there be changes? Absolutely, count on it. The press release from Duchossois even noted that one of their intentions is to strengthen the management team so I think it is safe to assume there will be management changes. Duchossois also has a stable of other high technology companies particularly some in the networking area so perhaps we will see some benefits from being part of a broader corporate umbrella.

Several things are clear - to the extent new product developments are slowed, time frames for product releases increase, product quality deteriorates, or technical support becomes problematic (or any combination of these), dealers will look for alternatives just as they did during the Panja days. Many of them might not come back for a 3rd time.

Thomas Hayes

Re: AMX to be Acquired!

" Several things are clear - to the extent new product developments are slowed, time frames for product releases increase, product quality deteriorates, or technical support becomes problematic (or any combination of these), dealers will look for alternatives just as they did during the Panja days. Many of them might not come back for a 3rd time." Quoted from Reese

Very true, its not often to get a second chance when a company like Cres**** is 'in house' So take the ball and run AMX.

[Deleted User]

Fortunaty it seems that having a 4 billion dollar company in your back pocket, nothing will decrease. It will be nice that AMX can fly under the radar as a private company and not as a public company, which limited marketing and RND. I think that is why things slipped during the Panja years, that and a lawyer ran the company, blaaaaah.
Also with Bob Carroll still at the realm I see no reason why things won't get even better.