Vitec Imaging Solutions, the company that owns Gitzo, Lowepro, Manfrotto, Joby, Syrp, and many other photographic brands, has announced that it has acquired Savage Universal, a major manufacturer of studio backdrops.

Savage Universal, based in Phoenix, Arizona, is one of the global market leaders in photo backgrounds (otherwise known as backdrops) for professional studios. The company has been producing a wide range of seamless paper backdrops for photographers since 1937.lication managed by Amazon.

BRICK-AND-MORTAR STORES

• Amazon Books
  A chain of 18 brick-and-mortar bookstores that launched in 2015.
• Amazon 4-star
  A chain of three stores featuring a selection of the top products rated four stars and above for sale on Amazon.com. The first Amazon 4-star store was launched in 2018.
• Amazon Go
  A chain of four no-checkout convenience stores launched in 2016.
• Presented by Amazon
  A chain of four kiosks of top brands on Amazon.com that launched in May 2019.

EDUCATION

• TenMarks Education
  A company that provides personalized online math practice and enrichment programs for K-Algebra/Geometry using technology products. One product, called Amazon Inspire, was a content discovery service that provides teachers access to a library of educator-created digital educational resources. Amazon, which acquired the company in 2013, recently discontinued TenMarks' tools.
• Amazon Whispercast
  A platform that lets educators buy, manage, and distribute e-books and apps from Amazon's Kindle and Apps & Games stores, directly to students.
• Amazon Inspire
  A resource group for teachers and educators to share and discover digital resources, worksheets, lesson plans, and assessments.

ELECTRONICS AND DEVICES

• Amazon Kindle
  An e-book reader sold by Amazon.
• Amazon Fire
  A tablet computer developed by Amazon and Quanta Computer.
• Amazon Echo
  A smart speaker that connects to the voice-controlled, intelligent personal assistant service Alexa. The market research firm eMarketer estimates the Echo will account for roughly 63% of all US smart speaker sales in 2019. To compare, the firm estimates Google will account for 31% of the market.
• Amazon Alexa
  Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant service developed by Amazon.
• Amazon Cloud Cam
  An internet-connected security camera that works with Alexa. The device, launched in October 2017, works as a part of Key by Amazon, a service offered to Amazon Prime members as a way to get deliveries inside their home by giving Amazon contractors a one-time code to smart locks.
• Blink
  A home automation company that creates outdoor and indoor security cameras. Amazon acquired the company for $90 million in late 2017.
• Ring
  A smart doorbell company Amazon acquired in 2018 for $1.2 billion. The Ring device is a Wi-Fi--enabled doorbell that can stream live video of a doorstep to a smartphone or tablet.
• NuPro
  An Amazon brand of tech accessories, including screen protectors for Amazon Fire tablets.

ENERGY

• Amazon Wind Farm Texas
  A 100-turbine wind farm in West Texas, opened in late 2017. The farm is the largest of Amazon's 18 renewable energy projects, including wind and solar farms, in the US. Amazon said it would purchase 90% of the facility's output.

FOOD AND BEVERAGES

• Whole Foods Market
  Amazon bought Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion. Whole Foods is a brick-and-mortar supermarket chain featuring organic foods as well as foods without artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, or hydrogenated fats.
• Amazon Restaurants
  Amazon's food delivery service. The company recently shut it down.
• Amazon Treasure Trucks
  These food trucks are scattered around the country and sell everything from steak to Philips Hue lights.
• Happy Belly
  A private Amazon label of everyday essentials such as coffee and spices.
• Wickedly Prime
  An Amazon brand that offers food and beverages such as popcorn, chips, soup, and tea. It's like Amazon's version of Trader Joe's.
• Single Cow Burger
  Burger patties made exclusively for AmazonFresh.
• AmazonFresh
  Amazon's grocery delivery service currently available in some US states, London, Tokyo, and Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg, Germany.
• Prime Pantry
  An Amazon service that ships nonperishable grocery items for an additional fee.
• Wag
  An Amazon brand of dog food.

FINANCE

• Amazon Lending
  An invite-only loan program Amazon offers to sellers at various interest rates. The company said it has loaned billions of dollars to sellers since the program launched in 2011.
• Amazon Pay
  Amazon's online payment-processing service. It was launched in 2007.
• Tapzo
  Amazon acquired Tapzo, the popular Indian payment platform, for $40 million in 2018. Then it shut down the company and moved its users to Amazon Pay.

GAMING

• Curse
  A video game service company known for Curse Voice, which is like Skype for gamers. Players can easily get in touch and speak with each other over the internet as they play a game.
• Amazon GameOn
  An Amazon business launched in 2018 that enables developers to add e-sports competitions to mobile, PC, and console games so that players can win prizes.
• Double Helix Games
  A video game development company acquired by Amazon and renamed Amazon Game Studios in 2014.
• GameSparks
  Amazon in 2017 acquired GameSparks, a "backend as a service" provider allowing game developers to build gaming features and manage them all in the cloud.

HEALTH CARE

• 1492/the Amazon Grand Challenge/Project X
  A secret lab dedicated to health care research started in 2014. The project has reportedly started pitching Hera, which analyzes electronic medical records for incorrect codes or misdiagnoses.
• Basic Care
  Amazon's over-the-counter medicine line that includes products ranging from its own brand of ibuprofen to hair-regrowth treatment.
• PillPack
  An online pharmacy purchased by $1 billion in 2018. PillPack is an online pharmacy that sends customers prepackaged medication doses.

HOUSEHOLD ITEMS AND FURNITURE

• AmazonBasics
  Amazon's brand of household supplies, kitchen accessories, and tech accessories.
• Fabric.com
  A wholesale fabric store.
• Pike Street
  An Amazon brand of linens.
• Mama Bear
  Baby and family-focused products from Amazon, including diapers, baby food, and laundry detergent.
• Presto!
  A household-essentials line from Amazon that offers bio-based laundry detergent, dish soap, paper towels, and more.
• Solimo
  An Amazon brand of assorted household, personal care, beauty, and pet products.
• Pinzon
  An Amazon brand that offers everything from luxurious sheet sets, duvet covers, and comforters, to high-quality bath mats and bath towels.
• Small Parts
  An Amazon brand of spare parts, including magnets and steel wire.
• Rivet
  An Amazon private-label brand of midcentury modern furniture and decor.
• Stone & Beam
  An Amazon brand of furniture made with performance and stain-resistant fabrics to last.
• Strathwood
  An Amazon brand of outdoor furniture.

MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT

• Amazon Media on Demand
  An Amazon business that manufactures and ships CDs and DVDs.
• Amazon Studios
  A division of Amazon that develops television shows, distributes and produces films. It uses online submissions and crowdsourced feedback.
• Amazon Tickets
  An Amazon business launched in the UK in 2015 that sold tickets to concerts and live events. It was closed in 2018.
• Prime Video Direct
  A film and video distribution service that allows filmmakers to upload their projects onto the site to be seen on Prime Video.
• Amazon Prime Music
  Amazon's ad-free access to curated Prime Playlists and personalized Prime Stations available to Prime members.
• IMDb
  A subsidiary of Amazon, the Internet Movie Database, or IMDb, is an online database of information related to films, television programs, and video games, including casts, production crews, characters, biographies, plot summaries, trivia, and reviews.
• Box Office Mojo
  A site owned by IMDb, which is owned by Amazon, that tracks box office revenue and publishes the data on its website.
• ComiXology Unlimited
  An Amazon subscription service described as the "Netflix for comics."
• IMDbPro
  Members pay a monthly fee to access entertainment industry information, including credits and contact and representation information for TV and film professionals.
• Withoutabox
  A free submission service for film festivals and filmmakers acquired by Amazon through its acquisition of IMDb. Festival judges can use this application to view and rate films on a large-screen TV.
• Audible
  A subsidiary of Amazon that sells and produces audiobooks and shows on the internet.
• Brilliance Audio
  An audiobook publisher bought by Amazon in 2007.
• Audiobookstand
  A website of audiobooks available for purchase. It closed in 2018.
• AbeBooks
  An Amazon-owned company that offers vintage books, rare collectibles, and fine art sold by independent sellers.
• Kindle Owners' Lending Library
  Kindle owners who are Amazon Prime subscribers can choose from more than 800,000 books to borrow for free with no due dates.
• ACX
  A marketplace for professional narrators, authors, agents, and producers to connect and create audiobooks.
• Amazon Rapids
  Amazon's collection of children's books in the format of text messages between characters.
• Avalon Books
  The book publisher, which Amazon acquired in 2012, specialized in hardcover mystery, "wholesome" romance, and Westerns. Avalon books are now published under imprints of Amazon Publishing.
• Amazon Publishing
  Founded in 2009, Amazon Publishing publishes and owns a number of imprints, including Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, 47North, and Amazon Crossing.
• BookSurge
  An on demand self-publishing service Amazon acquired in 2005.
• CreateSpace
  BookSurge and CustomFix, another Amazon acquisition, merged to become CreateSpace in 2005. CreateSpace provided tools and services to independent authors to self-publish books through the site. It later merged with Amazon's KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).
• Book Depository
  The UK's largest online bookseller has millions of titles available for shipping within 48 hours.
• Goodreads
  This subsidiary of Amazon, acquired in 2013, allows readers to connect with one another online through book recommendations and reviews. The site has 65 million members and 2 billion books added to member profiles. Another book-cataloging social network, called Shelfari, that Amazon bought in 2008 was merged under Goodreads.
• Kindle Direct Publishing
  Amazon's self-publishing service that allows people to publish Kindle e-books.
• Westland Books
  A publishing company based in India that Amazon acquired in 2016.
• Twitch.tv
  A livestreaming video platform for gamers to connect and stream videos. It has 15 million visitors daily and over 2 million unique creators who broadcast each month. It was acquired in 2014 for $970 million.
• Amazon Prime Video
  Amazon's internet video on demand and streaming service.
• LOVEFiLM International
  Amazon acquired LOVEFiLM in 2011 for $312 million during the age of DVDs-by-mail. Six years later, Amazon closed the company.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

• Home Services
  Through Home Services, Amazon offers 1,200 unique professional services from housecleaning to lawn work.
• Mechanical Turk
  A marketplace that gives businesses access to an on demand workforce and gives workers a selection of thousands of paid tasks to complete whenever it's convenient.

SHIPPING AND LOGISTICS

• Amazon Maritime
  Holds a Federal Maritime Commission license to operate as a non-vessel-operating common carrier (NVOCC), which enables the company to manage its own shipments from China into the United States. *Amazon Global Store
  Ships millions of products to over 100 countries.
• Amazon Robotics
  Amazon acquired Kiva Systems --- a mobile robotic fulfillment system formerly used by retailers like the Gap, Walgreens, Staples, Office Depot, Crate & Barrel, and Saks Fifth Avenue --- in 2012 for $775 million. Now known as Amazon Robotics, it's exclusively used at Amazon warehouses. It's basically a bunch of Rumba-like robots flying around picking up boxes and bringing them to workers who place your items into a box to be shipped.
• Amazon Air
  A freight delivery service dedicated to Amazon's delivery logistics network with its own $1.5 billion hub in Northern Kentucky.
• Prime Air: Drones
  A system of delivery drones launched in 2013 but still in an experimental phase. In June 2019, Amazon revealed a new version of the drone with covered rotors for safety.

Opel was bought by the PSA group last yesr.

Sound United, the parent company for Denon, Polk Audio and Marantz, has reached a deal to buy Onkyo's home audio division, and it also gives it control of the Pioneer, Pioneer Elite and Integra labels -- that's a lot of major names under one roof.

@IronFilm

Of course. You can collect them all, sort out and post.

Vitec acquired Lowepro and Joby.

Vitec plans to integrate the two brands into its Photographic Division under the leadership of the Photographic Divisional Chief Executive Marco Pezzana.

Marco Pezzana said: "We are proud to announce that two remarkable brands within the Photographic Accessories market, JOBY and Lowepro, will join the Vitec Photographic Division. We pride ourselves on supplying the leading photographic brands to a global market, and this natural addition to our business strengthens the outstanding offering we already provide to our partners worldwide.

We believe that our extensive knowledge of the photographic market will enable us to add a wealth of value to these already leading brands. JOBY and Lowepro’s product development expertise coupled with our established global distribution network, engineering and manufacturing capabilities, gives an exciting opportunity for both the Vitec Group and our global partners."

Vitec also bought Wooden Camera, Offhollywood and Provak.

So now it is

• Wooden Camera
• Offhollywood
• Provak
• Colorama
• Teradek
• SmallHD
• Anton/Bauer
• Litepanels
• Offhollywood
• Paralinx
• Haigh-Farr
• Autocue
• Autoscript
• Sachtler
• Camera Corps
• Vinten
• OConnor
• Manfrotto
• Befree
• Avenger
• Gitzo
• Lastolite
• Manfrotto
• Kata
• National Geographic
• Litec
• Tomcat
• Brilliant Stages,
• Petrol Bags
• Nucomm
• RF Extreme
• Microwave Service Company
• Bexel
• The Camera Store

Vitec is looking good:

Next stage

LONDON (March 2, 2015) – The Vitec Group has acquired the business of Paralinx, a California company known for its high-quality wireless video systems. Paralinx will be incorporated into the Vitec Group’s Videocom Division, complementing its existing brands.

Paralinx was founded by Dan Kanes and Greg Smokler, two members of the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG) who sought to develop a new wave of affordable, high-definition wireless video tools for professionals and enthusiasts alike. The company will join Teradek and SmallHD in Vitec Videocom’s Creative Solutions business unit.

“Like Teradek and SmallHD, Paralinx is another great example of the pioneering spirit that is so important to disrupting the professional video industry with game-changing products and top-notch customer support,” said Vitec Videocom CEO Matt Danilowicz. “By combining Paralinx’s deep understanding of the market with Teradek’s engineering acumen, both companies are positioned to develop truly cutting-edge technology tailored specifically to their customers’ needs.”

To adequately address the growing demand for wireless video devices, Paralinx will continue to innovate in the UAV and independent content creator spaces, while Teradek will focus on cinema and television applications.

“When we launched Paralinx in 2012, our mission was simple: to enable filmmakers to monitor wirelessly a camera’s HD recording in real time,” said Dan Kanes, co-founder of Paralinx. “We sought to bring a new level of freedom to video production, an essential link in digital cinematography. Now, in 2015, we are excited to be joining forces with Teradek and SmallHD, other innovators under the world-renowned Vitec Group, to continue empowering content creators with revolutionary technology and unparalleled support.”

Co-founder Greg Smokler added: “We started Paralinx because as end-users on the front lines of content production we weren’t getting the tools that we needed. This acquisition gives us the opportunity to collaborate with the talented engineers and product development team at Teradek and to make use of the Vitec Group’s manufacturing and operational might. We believe that the biggest winners out of this will be the people that helped us get to where we are today: our customers.”

FMIC was once Fender Guitars. Now they own

• Gretsch
• EVH
• Jackson
• Charvel
• SWR
• Guild
• Groove Tubes
• DeArmond
• Tacoma
• Sunn

and its wholly owned subsidiary, KMC controls

• Ovation
• Takamine
• Gibraltar
• Gretsch (Drums)
• LP (Latin Percussion)
• Toca
• Hamer
• Genz-Benz
• Jasmine

Fran