Avid is to close some of its offices as part of its efforts to make $68m (£48m) of savings.

In a statement to investors yesterday, the company said it would close or “downsize” redundant offices.

Avid did not state how many jobs might be affected by the restructure but it did say that savings related to personnel are expected to account for two thirds of the $68m.

Broadcast understands that some US-based staff have already been made redundant. A small number of UK staff are believed to be in consultation about their roles.

As well as combining and closing its under-used facilities Avid said it would spend less on external vendors. 

“We are on track to complete Avid’s transformation by the middle of 2017 and position the Company for long-term sustainable and profitable growth,” said Avid chairman, president and chief executive Louis Hernandez Jr.

He said: “Avid is in the final stretches of its dramatic transformation and we’re pleased that the growing adoption, stability and maturation of the Media Central Platform will now allow us to fully realize its potential to drive a more efficient operating model by eliminating components and processes that are no longer required with a single global platform.”

Avid’s “misaligned” workforce

Speaking with Broadcast in September at last year’s IBC, Hernandez said he felt Avid was “misaligned”.

He said: “We were under-invested in Europe and Asia compared to customers and revenues, about right in Latin America but over-invested in the US.

“So we are adding a few hundred people in Europe and we have also opened offices in Poland, Taiwan and the Philippines to get more people in the markets that support us.

“Even in the US, most of our employees are in Boston and Silicon Valley, but our clients are in LA and New York.”

Avid said that “maturation” of its Media Central platform, which it launched at NAB in 2014, had allowed it to share tools across its portfolio of products which in turn allowed it to “reduce or eliminate the need for stand alone, siloed processes and redundant workflows”. 

Avid reduced its headcount by around 20% in 2012 when it also sold its consumer business. Four years earlier, 400 jobs were lost as part of a global restructure and the company’s Soho office was also closed.

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