Avid Keeps Sibelius, Employee Confirms UK Office Closure

Avid PR contact Ian Bruce, responding to a direct request for comment, stated, “Specifically on Sibelius, this was not part of the sales we announced this week. Sibelius stays with Avid, and is an important brand and product for us going forward.” Sibelius Senior Product Manager David Spreadbury confirmed the closure of the UK office and that development is moving elsewhere.

Written By

NewMusicBox Staff

Avid Technology, the company behind the high-end video editing suite Avid and the owners of Sibelius software, announced Monday that it had agreed to sell its consumer audio and video product lines.

Gary Greenfield, CEO of Avid, noted that “by streamlining and simplifying operations, we expect to deliver improved financial performance and partner more closely with our enterprise and professional customers,” but no updates specific to the future of the Sibelius line were addressed in the release.

Bruce did not respond to follow-up questions regarding unconfirmed reports that Avid is closing the UK Sibelius office and that the work will be moved to a team in the Ukraine to cut costs. He also did not address Avid’s plans for product support during this transition time nor comment on the next development release of the software.

Avid bought Sibelius in 2006 from its founders Ben and Jonathan Finn. On Twitter, Sibelius Senior Product Manager Daniel Spreadbury confirmed the closure of the UK office and that development is moving elsewhere. It is still unknown what this means for Sibelius’s UK staff.

When asked how Sibelius connects to Avid’s stated focus on enterprise and professional customers, Bruce said, “Sibelius is widely used by our Media Enterprise customers (broadcast, film and others), educational customers, and Post/Pro, and is regarded as the de facto professional platform for writing, playing, printing and sharing music.”

On Tuesday Avid conducted a conference call with slides to announce the sales, and subsequently posted the slide deck. The slides outline Avid’s focus on professional post-production customers and a more streamlined set of products. The slides make no mention of Sibelius.

Composers took to social media to share their concerns and request information from the company.

(reporting contributed by Molly Sheridan and Kevin Clark)
Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified Daniel Spreadbury as David Spreadbury. Thanks to commenter Hilton Cubbitt for pointing out the mistake. We apologize for the error.