Thomson Buys Into Disk And Facilities

Thomson multimedia is to buy Panasonic’s US and European DVD and CD replication facilities, and it has also bought into facilities.

Technicolor, which is owned by Thomson multimedia, has signed a binding agreement to buy Panasonic Disc Services Corporation (PDSC) from Matsushita. Matsushita will continue to own and operate a facility in California in order to fulfil games disk contracts, but DVD, CD-ROM and videocassette operations will be handled through Technicolor.

Thomson multimedia has also bought Vidfilm International Digital, a $50m tunrover Californian post production services company whose customers include Disney, Sony, Universal, 20th Century, Miramax and Warner Bros. Vidfilm’s digital media centre in Los Angeles houses video on demand, Internet streaming and DVD authoring facilities which are linked by broadband to its London operation, Vidfilm Europe.