Dolby Laboratories Inc. has been fairly quiet on the M&A front in its 43 years. A scan of the company's website shows just two acquisitions in the past five years. But the addition of Eric Cohen, a 30-year veteran of investment banking, as senior vice president of corporate development could signal the venerable audio systems developer is looking to buy as it strengthens its portfolio of technologies.
In an industry that demands nimbleness and innovation, Dolby has been a strong performer. Quarterly profits have risen by more than 25% every quarter since September 2005. The impressive growth is due largely to an internal research and development team that's led Dolby's charge into PC gaming, digital cinema, high definition television and mobile phones.
Those two acquisitions helped, too. Dolby expanded its capabilities in the wireless arena with the November 2007 acquisition of Coding Technologies, whose audio-compression technology enables delivery of audio to low-bandwidth media applications on wireless devices and the Internet. In April of last year, Dolby branched out into video when it bought BrightSide
Technologies Inc., whose technology enables video capture, distribution and display on LCD and projection TVs.
The release announcing Cohen's appointment didn't say whether his job will include pursuing more deals, and we haven't heard back from San Francisco-based Dolby (we'll let you know if we do). But consider this: Cohen has spent the past decade
as a managing director of Cowen and Co. LLC, advising digital and new media
clients on strategic transactions. Before that, he was a managing
director at J.P. Morgan and spent 13 years at Credit Suisse First
Boston. It would be a surprise if Dolby didn't put those years of M&A expertise to work. -
Suzanne Stevens
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