Content creation specialist boosts gamer offering with £30m acquisition drive

An international content creation solutions company has announced its investment of more than £30m in the acquisition of two global companies.

The Vitec Group, based in the UK, has announced its acquisition of video software developer Lightstream for £26m and LED solutions company Quasar for £4.4m.

Vitec provides products for photographers and broadcasters and owns brands including Manfrotto and JOBY, and has said that the acquisitions are an “excellent strategic and technological fit”.

Lightstream, based in Chicago, develops cloud-based live production software aimed at streamers and gamers and will bring 16,000 paying subscribers to the group, having reported £1.4m revenue last year.

Quasar, in Los Angeles, designs and develops LED lighting solutions for cine-style applications, and reported revenues of £6m in 2019.

Stephen Bird, group chief executive of Vitec, commented: “Lightstream is a world-leading live streaming software business.

“This acquisition enables Vitec to enter the substantial and fast-growing adjacent gaming market, adding innovative and complementary software for our live streaming customers and significantly expanding our customer reach.

“With Lightstream as part of the group, we will be able to address the growing demand for cloud-based content creation as well as more than doubling our recurring revenue stream.

“Quasar products are highly complementary to our Litepanels brand and this acquisition will enhance our position as a leading player in the growing LED lighting market.

“These acquisitions are an excellent strategic and technological fit, have great medium-term prospects and are expected to increase our underlying revenue CAGR.

“This is an exciting time for Vitec as we continue to increase our higher technology capabilities and expand our total addressable market. I am delighted to welcome both talented teams to the group.”