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NEVADA CITY, CA-After previously announcing that it had intentions to spin off the Grass Valley Group and Profile product lines from Tektronix, and move manufacturing facilities out of Beaverton, OR, a management team led by Tim Thorsteinson, currently president of Tektronix's Video and Networking Division (VND), announced on August 9 that, with the financial help of entrepreneurial industrialist Dr. Terence Gooding, it was purchasing the assets of VND outright and forming a separate company called Grass Valley Group Inc.
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed by the end of September. Tektronix will retain a 10 percent equity interest in the Grass Valley Group and current managementincluding Larry Neitling, vice president of operations, Greg Wasche, director of Profile software engineering, and Russ Johnson, sales director for the Americas-will be part owners as well. The Grass Valley Group will lease the 140,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility on 67 acres in Nevada City from Tektronix. GVG will also lease the existing Beaverton facility to continue R&D and marketing efforts for the Profile digital video server.
Gooding, who helped grow a number of smaller companies-the most recent being Wavetek Wandel Goltermann Inc., which he took over in 1991 operating at $50 million and is now at $500 million-said he expects the new company, which will be headquartered in Nevada City, to have annual sales of approximately $250 million next year and employ nearly 700 employees worldwide.
"My strengths are management development, business development finance, and mergers and acquisitions," Gooding stated. "I plan to work with Tim [Thorsteinson]...