Growth through trusted brands

With a portfolio of leading audio brands, Audiotonix has over 150 years’ combined industry experience that has seen it become the global market leader in mixing consoles.  The group has evolved through a sequence of MBOs, investment, and acquisitions.

 2007 saw the first successful DiGiCo management buyout funded with Mobeus, and in 2011 the company completed a secondary management buyout with investment from Private Equity firm, Livingbridge.

“It was a joy to work with such a professional team, determined to provide the highest quality product and unparalleled customer service. This focus on customers’ needs is what has driven the businesses’s success and what created such a successful investment for a number of institutional investors”

Bob Henry, Mobeus

“Great people, best-in-class technology, global market leader and profitable. What more could an investor ask for?”

Shani Zindel, Living Bridge

In 2014, DiGiCo merged with two businesses owned by funds under the management of Epiris, (formerly Electra Partners), a UK-based buyout firm that had purchased Allen & Heath in 2013, followed by Calrec in 2014. This led to the formation of Audiotonix. Each business is a leader in its own audio market segment, and the creation of this new group with a common technical knowledge laid the foundation for fast-paced technical innovations.

February 2017 saw Epiris sell its 58% stake in Audiotonix to the French buyout business group, Astorg, providing further support for product development along with manufacturing and production expansion. The Group also integrated the leading US importer and distributor Group One, providing the Calrec and DiGiCo brands with a stronger reach in a key regional market. In December of that year, Audiotonix purchased the prestige brand Solid State Logic, with a fifty-year pedigree in professional studio consoles that have since moved into audio creation, broadcast, and software plug-Ins for music production.

With an eye on future audio developments, DiGiCo announced in December 2018 the acquisition of KLANG:technologies, a pioneer in immersive sound technology. The combination of DiGiCo console technology and KLANG’s I-IEM (Immersive In-Ear Monitoring) solutions provides a new level of monitoring and mixing  for live artists and monitor engineers alike.

 

“At Astorg, we’re extremely proud to be supporting Audiotonix, a true technology leader in the global professional audio industry. Audiotonix grew by bringing the best hardware and software combinations on an international scale to a demanding audience of sound engineers and acoustic specialists and committing to 100% reliability thanks to thorough, best-in-class quality controls”

Stéphane Epin, Astorg

In December 2019, French private equity group Ardian completed its acquisition of a majority stake in Audiotonix from Astorg, with the latter remaining as an investor. This significant investment provided a platform to further expand the group’s brands and product portfolio.

In October 2021, Sound Devices LLC joined the Audiotonix group, again diversifying their solution and technology portfolio in professional audio. With a 20-year track record, the company’s multi-track audio recorders, field production mixers, and RF solutions have been used on the sets of award-winning movies, TV shows, and documentaries.

In October 2022, Audiotonix finalised the addition of Slate Digital, a market leader in audio software and microphone modelling. Founded in 2008, the company has established one of the most successful audio-focused software subscription platforms delivering processing and instrument plug-ins, mixing and mastering audio processing software, audio samples, and video courses.

In 2023 has seen multiple acquisitions occurred across the group. The US-based pro audio console and music production software manufacturer Harrison joined Solid State Logic in April. Since 1975, Harrison has been one of the world’s leading console brands for music recording/mixing, film, and television sound post-production, and its consoles have been utilised across many of the biggest recording hits from Michael Jackson to ABBA.

In June, Audiotonix announced the acquisition of sonible, one of the world’s leading developers of assistive artificial intelligence (A.I.) based processing solutions for professional audio. Located in Graz, Austria, sonible’s assistive mixing plug-ins have provided a new generation of intelligent processing production tools for engineers and audio creatives, further building the group’s software portfolio.

In October, DiGiCo announced the acquisition of Fourier Audio, a UK-based live sound software developer and manufacturer. The deal further strengthens DiGiCo’s investment in live sound innovation, building on their acquisition of immersive in-ear pioneers KLANG:technologies in 2018.

2024 saw Audiotonix announce an agreement for a next stage investment from PAI Partners, a pre-eminent private equity firm. The investment followed a successful period of growth with enhanced presence in live events, professional audio creation, commercial installation, TV and film production, and broadcast markets. Both Ardian and Astorg maintain a minority stake in Audiotonix via re-investment as part of this transaction.

 

Moving forward..

With an integrated research and development backbone in place, the group has continued to add strength across all the businesses providing group resources within operations, procurement, finance and marketing. With this strong technological leadership, a portfolio of trusted world class brands and a long-standing management team, Audiotonix is seeing continued growth in its traditional markets and in new product verticals.