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Novato, Calif.-based Sonic Solutions has signed an agreement to pay $9.2 million in stock for the desktop and mobile division of Veritas, which makes PC-backup and disc-burning tools. Products included in the acquisition are Veritas' RecordNow and Drive Letter Access CD- and DVD-burning tools and its Simple Backup and Backup MyPC applications.
The Veritas products, particularly the CD-burning tools, will allow the company to offer a complete software package for makers of recordable DVD drives to package with their hardware, said Sonic Solutions CEO Bob Doris. Such bundling deals with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) account for the bulk of revenue in that market.
"We've been almost entirely DVD-focused, and this brings us into the CD mastering and CD burning space for the first time," Doris said. "It allows us with our OEM partners to offer more of the software they typically need. We can now offer just about all the software typically bundled with a recordable DVD drive...and we can bring these products together and integrate them with a really usable interface."
Recordable DVD drives have quickly moved from a PC luxury to a standard feature, with many PC makers adding the drives to budget models to boost year-end sales. Growth is expected to continue accelerating next year, despite confusion over conflicting media formats.
Sonic Solution's growth has been based on offering easy-to-use applications that span a variety of formats and produce discs that can be used with the greatest number of home DVD player models, Doris said.
"Consumers buy a recordable DVD disc because they want to get their home movies from their PC to the living room," he said. "Ultimately, what you're buying is the ability to make a disc and put that disc in your DVD player--that's the compatibility you want."
